Natsuaki Yamamoto

• Category
  Metalwork
• Techniques
  Metal inlay, Hammer forming, Embossing
• Born
  1943 -
• Based in
  Kyoto
• Membership
  Full member, Japan Kogei Association
  Board Member of the Japan Kōgei Association Kinki Branch

Style

Producing mainly flat inlay, relief inlay and metal overlay for metal engraving, metal shaping and casting.
Metalwork was popular and exported to Europe and the US in the late 1800s until the beginning of the 1900s. (The metalwork family business descended from the Goto family who made the oval gold coins for the Tokugawa shogunate in the Edo period. They went out of business around 1882. ) Our family was a family of Shinto priests before the Meiji Restoration (1868 - 1889) and did metal engraving as a side business. Metalworker Kenjo Goto who used the Chinese character "Ken" in his artist name, went to Kanazawa and Takaoka to teach metalwork and established the base of Kanazawa Metal Inlay. His grave is inside the Ichihara Station of Eizan Electric Railway Co. Only a few people in Japan are able to do relief inlay today.

Biography

• 1958
  Learns metal engraving from his father (Natsuaki himself is the 5th generation)
• 1962
  Graduated from Kyoto Municipal Horikawa High School
• 1972
  Completed the Metal Casting Course held by Kyoto City
• 1975
  Selected for the Kinki Traditional Kōgei Exhibition for the first time (selected 30 times from this year onward)
• 1982
  Selected for the Metalworks Traditional Kōgei Exhibition for the first time (selected more than 20 times from this year onward)
• 1989
  Selected for the 36th Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition for the first time
• 1990
  Selected for the 37th Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition
• 1993
  Selected for the 40th Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition
  Dedicated sword fittings and brazier (in charge of metal carving) for the 61st Ise Jingu Reconstruction
• 1997
  Selected for the 44th Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition
  Becomes Full Member of the Japan Kōgei Association
• 2001
  Selected for the 48th Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition
• 2006
  Solo Exhibition at Gion "Konishi" in Kyoto
• 2007
  Judge at the 37th Kinki Traditional Kōgei Exhibition
• 2008
  Awarded as Master Craftsman of Kyoto for excellent techniques in the traditional industry
  Selected for and judge for the 38th Kinki Traditional Kōgei Exhibition
• 2013
  Dedicated sword fittings and brazier (in charge of metal carving) for the 62nd Ise Jingu Reconstruction
• 2021
  Selected for the 50th Kinki Traditional Kōgei Exhibition (selected 35 times in total)
  Selected for the 49th Metalworks Traditional Kōgei Exhibition (selected 31 times in total)
  Selected for the 68th Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition (selected 14 times in total)

Awards

• 1975
  Awarded 3 times receiving the Excellence Award and Honorable Mention at the Kyoto Traditional Craft Technique Competition (until 1977)
• 2011
  Received the Japan Kōgei Association Award at the 37th Metalworks Traditional Kōgei Exhibition
• 2013
  Received the Konosuke Matsushita Memorial Award at the 42nd Kinki Traditional Kōgei Exhibition

Public Collections

• Kamigamo Jinja