Designer Masahiro Mori received his first major prize in 1960. This was a time when everyone thought that things made in Japan looked cheap.
American home dramas playing on the black and white televisions of the time clearly showed the huge difference in standards of living between Japan and America, and we were in awe of the affluence of American family life.
It was a time in Japan when the work of designers was finally beginning to gain public recognition in the fashion world and the field of graphics, but there was as yet hardly any consciousness of designers at all in the area of mass produced commodities.
It was during such an era that the soy sauce bottle designed by Masahiro Mori made its debut.
Though no single part or contour was emphasized, its form left a fresh visual impression on us; it also had the splendid functionality of preventing dripping after the soy sauce was poured; and on top of all that, it was sold at the affordable price of 250 yen. This mass produced commodity received the first Good Design Prize awarded by the Japan Design Committee. With that award, the names of Masahiro Mori and the product manufacturer Hakusann Toki Co., Ltd. became widely known to the public for the first time.
At the time, people were impressed by the fact that such an outstanding design had been achieved in a product as common as the soy sauce bottle, something which everyone uses and every household has. This soy sauce bottle was also awarded the Special Prize for Long-Selling Good Design Products by the Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization (JIDPO) in 1977, and it continues to sell today as a useful product at a price as reasonable as ever.
Masahiro Mori successful march forward into the marketplace did not stop with the soy sauce bottle --he has designed one hit product after another, including various types of simple, multi-purpose tableware. As a person who in 1960 had already created a design solid enough to be used by people for many years, regardless of changes in popular trends, I wanted to find out what Masahiro Mori was thinking about and focusing his attention on today, and I paid him a visit in 1994.
Growing Lessons and Chance Opportunities
The Mori Ceramic Design Studio is located in Ureshino, Saga Prefecture, at the top of a slope lined with the traditional Japanese houses known as minka. Mori came out to greet me, looking quite youthful in a yellow check shirt.
Mori is above all a person who speaks his mind. He immediately criticized the local ceramics industry as being too conservative."
It seems that one source of this man energy is his anger about the easy mannerism practiced in the name of tradition. But since Mori was himself born in Saga, one would think that his upbringing must have accustomed him to the traditions of the famed Arita ware from the same prefecture. My involvement with ceramics began after I entered the design program in high school," Mori responds. I liked painting, but I had so little interest in ceramics that I didn't even know Arita was famed for its ceramics until my high school years." He was born in 1927. For his generation, youth was experienced alongside the developments of the war. In the latter part of high school, I was mobilized for the task of making porcelain parts for fighter planes at a local factory. This experience was useful for the ceramic design I was to do later," says Mori, because I was able to make a thorough study of clay." He also recounts his intention to enlist, which was considered a matter of course at the time. Then, with the end of the war, he had to make a complete change in the value judgements and life plans. He went on with an attitude of cool reserve: Ever since, I have not entertained zealous thoughts about anything."
After the war, the young Mori spent two years as an apprentice to a local potter. He told me about this experience, which directly reflects another aspect of his personality: More than the artist's ceramic work, I was drawn to his self-possessed way of life. But looking back on it now, I was able to have a wonderful experience working under him."
After that, he enrolled at an art university in Tokyo in 1948. He says his motivation lay not so much in university studies, but in finding a niche that would provide some kind of stimulation. He discovered his greatest niche not in the university but in the design center, the only organization of its kind in Japan at the time. Its reading room carried magazines and other design-related materials from all over the world, and the leading figures in every field of design in postwar Japan made frequent visits to the center. Mori developed a daily routine of spending the afternoon there as a researcher, and he was afforded the priceless experience of acquiring a great deal of knowledge by assisting the work of his seniors. At the time there were no specialists in ceramic design, but the fact that there was no possibility of getting trapped in preconceptions was probably a blessing for Mori later career as a designer.
After graduation, Mori took a job in editing and graphics, but he quit after two years and returned to his native Kyushu. He has been working and living in Kyushu ever since.
Aiming for the Development of a National Tableware
After two years working with ceramics in Nagasaki Prefecture, he took a position which had been offered to him by Hakusan Toki Co., Ltd., a ceramics manufacturer located in Saga Prefecture Hasami, bordering on Arita, the town famed for its ceramic arts. Hakusan Toki was the birthplace of the popular soy sauce bottle Mori designed.
Mori and the president of Hakusan Porcelain hit it off from the start, but Mori knew from past experiences that nothing could be created on the basis of understanding from top management alone.
To the designer, who turns mental images into the concrete, visible from of a product, the company president and the people directly involved in the production process share the same rank, you see. I spent the morning with the artisans painting the ceramic wares, and I spent the afternoons on my own, making use of my knowledge to produce the paints at low cost. It was expensive to purchase paints from outside at the time, so people in the company were quite pleased with me. Thus the company workers gradually came to cooperate with me," Mori explains. And within a year of entering the company, he had already created his soy sauce bottle.
When I was a student, my relatives once told me to become an independent ceramic artist," Mori says, but I argued that I wanted to make things to benefit many people in society, so I wanted to work at a company capable of mass production." Mori has not only ideals, but also a calm, collected vision. In his own words, When working together with the president of a medium-sized corparation, who is in charge of everything, you can do industrial design unless you keep a cool head. The number one criteria for design is whether or not it sells. If a product never reaches the consumers nothing comes of it, so you can go making enemies out of those who will get it distributed. But they are reluctant to treat designers as allies. Sometimes I get mad, but this kind of work is quite interesting."
Masaru Katsumi, who has writen with great discernment about the overall fild of design in our country, appraised Mori as a person capable of flawless design work that adds flavor to the commercial aspect. But unlike many designers with a flair for business, who are simply trend-chasing non-individualists, Mori possesses a style all his own which is permeated by a pure sense of from."
Certainly, Mori long career has always been based upon the balance between a cool-headed vision and the passionate feelings of youth summed up in the words to benefit many people in society."
An Educator who Values Human Relationships
Mori left the design department of Hakusan Toki in 1978, but even afterwards all of his works have continued to be produced by this company. For Mori, aside from the deep connection with this company, the advantage of flexibility not seen in large corporations is also an important factor.
I want to make implements that offer this suggestion to the consumer: Shouldn t you be able to enjoy this kind of living?' But such work can be done in a large corporation because it doesn't have the merit of being large-scale." At the root of Mori suggestion is a clear assertion.
all about saying, Live a life that suits your own sense of everyday existence. Quit living a strained life; use implements that suit you yourself.'" This might sound like irritation at ordinary people for not understanding quality in things, but that not at all the case. For Mori, ordinary people do not exist at a distance from himself.
Mori, who mentions without affectation that his friends and relatives are all connected to himself, hold human relationships dear. He has kept up active participation and cooperation in efforts to maintain a dialogue with his peers and to foster the talents of the next generation.
In 1961, Mori was a founder of the Kyushu Craft Designers Association, the only organization of its kind in Japan to focus on regional activities. The fact that this organization has produced so many ambitious works owes a great deal to Mori presence as a founder and first director. Furthermore, educational activities as lecturer and professor stand out in the latter half of Mori professional profile.
Last year, Mori was overtaken by an unexpected and severe illness. His life was in danger for a time, but he miraculously recovered and returned to work. Although he lost weight as a result, his desire to work has not deteriorated in the least. In September, he also opened his first solo exhibition in Saga Prefecture (though he had already held numerous exhibitions of the sort in Tokyo and other major cities). used to say that when I got old I would become a ceramic artist, but it looks like I'm not going to do anything of the sort. This isn't the age for creating single pieces and asking for the world reaction." In the future, Masahiro Mori will surely continue to insist on Jeveryday implements necessary for contemporary life." In 1994 as well, he was a designer who lived smack in the middle of the age.
Masahiro Mori Collection at www.chatchada.com
