Kosei Koie

Style

I was born and raised in a fishing village, Ushimado Town in Okayama Prefecture. Ushimado has also been a town where wooden ships were made since the Edo period. I grew up watching shipwrights at work. Going forward, I learned the shipwrights' special technique to prevent seawater from entering through the bottom of the ship for fun, and made crafts using this technique.
As I spent my youth in extreme poverty, I worked for the Okayama prefectural government as a government employee, and worked on my artwork on holidays.
I worked two jobs to make a living until my retirement at the age of 60.
Woodworking involves noise and dust, and to overcome this issue, I built a large workshop during my time in public service.

The original form of this piece is a small boat called tenmasen which was used for transporting loads from a large ship to land. This is not a scaled model but a deformed version, so it may be difficult to tell, but it is indeed a tenmasen.

Recently, I have been producing hollowed work for the Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition.
I am very careful not to make reproductions of past works.
What I find particularly difficult is that my artwork is often criticised for not being within the realm of traditional crafts.
In the midst of all this, I try to create new works every day.

When I entered my 50s, I started to visit a hollowing wood artisan in Kagawa, crossing the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge several times, and learned about scraping and the tools etc. from him,

I learned most things from the shipwrights from an early age, but learning the traditional techniques passed down for generations from the trained artisan in Kagawa was an eye-opening experience. The scraping tools that I was using were those that I made myself, but the artisan's tools were totally different. I think my work started to be recognized at exhibitions, including the Prefectural Exhibitions, from around this time.
As it is currently difficult to learn hollowing techniques in Okayama, I still continue to learn from artisans in Kagawa.
I have repeatedly been rejected from the Chūgoku Traditional Kōgei Exhibition and Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition, but last year I was able to receive the Asahi Shimbun Award at the Wood and Bamboo Traditional Kōgei Exhibition, the Hiroshima Governor Award at the Chūgoku Traditional Kōgei Exhibition, and was selected for the Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition.

As I've mentioned previously, I do not want to reproduce artworks of famous artworks in the past.
My artworks are all original works that I formed from scratch with clay.

Awards

• 2024
  TV Setouchi Award, 67th Chūgoku Traditional Kōgei Exhibition
• 2025
  Asahi Shimbun Award, 20th Wood and Bamboo Traditional Kōgei Exhibition
  Hiroshima Prefecture Governor Award, 68th Chūgoku Traditional Kōgei Exhibition