Yasunori Kakuma

• Category
  Wood and Bamboo
• Techniques
  Wood joinery, Wiped lacquer finish
• Born
  1984 -
• Based in
  Ishikawa
• Membership
  Full member, Japan Kogei Association
  Member of the Ishikawa Prefectural Art and Culture Association
  Member of the Kanazawa Craft Council

About the Artist

Bringing Out the Charm of Wood Grains with Exquisite Skills

Woodwork artist Yasunori Kakuma received the MEXT Award at the 71st Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition in 2024. His specialty is wood joinery, a traditional technique where no nails or metal parts are used, and the wood is assembled so that the jointed parts are not shown. He uses old wood found in the ground or in water called Jindai cedar wood and Jindai zelcova wood, and Japanese yew wood with a beautiful reddish-brown color. His artwork is simple but his sense of beauty can be seen in the details. Such beautiful forms where the beauty of wood is brought out to the most charms those who see his artwork.

Biography

• 1984
  Born in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture
• 2004
  Graduated from Kyoto Traditional Arts Technical College (current Traditional Arts Super College of Kyoto), Woodcraft Department
  Studies joinery under Norio Fukushima
• 2005
  Selected for the first time for the Kanazawa Craft Exhibition
• 2006
  Selected for the first time for the Contemporary Arts Exhibition held at the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, selected several times from this year onward
  Selected for the first time for the Ishikawa Traditional Kōgei Exhibition, selected several times from this year onward
• 2007
  Selected for the first time for the Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition, selected several times from this year onward
• 2010
  Certified as Full Member of the Japan Kogei Association

Awards

• 2010
  Received the Incentive Award at the 51st Ishikawa Traditional Kōgei Exhibition
• 2012
  Received the Kanazawa City Mayor Award at the 53rd Ishikawa Traditional Kōgei Exhibition
  Received the New Artist Award at the 59th Japan Traditional Kōgei Exhibition
• 2015
  Received Second Prize at the 71st Contemporary Arts Exhibition
  Received the Hokkoku Shimbun President Award at the 21st Kenrokuen Grand Tea Ceremony
• 2016
  Received the Kanazawa City Mayor Award at the 22nd Kenrokuen Grand Tea Ceremony
• 2017
  Received the Grand Prize at the 73rd Contemporary Arts Exhibition, General Division
  Received the TV Kanazawa President Award (Technical Award)
  Received the Incentive Award at the 58th Ishikawa Traditional Kōgei Exhibition
  Received the Hokkoku Shimbun President Award at the 23rd Kenrokuen Grand Tea Ceremony