Unit 88-9 (Kiyomizu Masahiro)

Unit 88-9 (Kiyomizu Masahiro) is a glazed stoneware sculpture by contemporary Japanese potter and sculptor Kiyomizu Masahiro, also known by the professional art-name Kiyomizu Rokubei VIII. This piece is held in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada.

Kiyomizu Masahiro
Kiyomizu Masahiro (清水 柾博) was born in Kyoto on April 22, 1954. His father was the sculptor Kiyomizu Kyūbei (清水九兵衛), who in 1981 became the seventh head of the Kiyomizu pottery atelier and took the name Kiyomizu Rokubei VII.

Kiyomizu Masahiro graduated from Tokyo's Waseda University with a degree in architecture from the Faculty of Science and Engineering in 1979. Although he originally planned to pursue this field, but decided to follow in the family pottery tradition because it gave him "full control of the creative process from start to finish." He returned to Kyoto, where he continued his studies. He spent one year at the Kyoto Prefectural Ceramic Training Institute and another year at the Municipal Decorative Arts Institute in Kyoto.

In 1983, he became an official ceramist of the Kiyomizu family. In 2000, at age 46, he succeeded his father to become the eighth head of the Kiyomizu pottery studio. At this time he took the name Kiyomizu Rokubei VIII. Since then, he has attempted to combine the 240 plus years of tradition of his family kiln with his own unique avant-garde style.

He is currently an instructor of Contemporary Ceramics at the Kyoto University of Art and Design (京都造形芸術大学). He describes the goal of his classes as, "not simply to learn the techniques required to make ceramics, but to learn how to use those skills to produce a beautiful form, to create the form you want to express, to create a form corresponding to a specific image." A technique he favours is joining flat slabs of clay in extended forms, highlighting instead of hiding the process of their construction. He then makes cuts to weaken the structure, which results in distortions during firing. Kiyomizu Rokubei VIII is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics, the Japan Society of Oriental Ceramic Studies (東洋陶磁学会) and the Ceramic Society of Japan (日本陶磁協会). In a 2004 survey conducted by Japanese art magazine Honoho Geijutsu to determine Japan's most important living ceramists, Kiyomizu tied for 23rd place in the popular vote. He was ranked 12th by curators, critics and art journalists.

Unit 88-9
Although the first heads of the Kiyomizu family concentrated on traditional, popular objects and designs, Rokubei VII and VIII "took a radical turn" to produce abstract, geometric three-dimensional pieces which are either purely decorative, or combine function with distinctive, unexpected form. His works have been described as "futuristic-looking" and as having "a very Cubist sensibility." Unit 88-9 fits in well with this characterization. It is a polyhedral piece of sculptural stoneware, with multiple flat and curved surfaces. The top surface is concave and, like every other surface, is lacerated. It is monochromatic, being entirely dark brown.

Other works
Rokubei VIII's pieces belong to the following collections: His large-scale 1972 steel sculpture Belt II stands in Paris' Museum of Outdoor Sculpture.
 * British Museum
 * National Art Museum of China
 * Everson Museum of Art
 * Sèvres National Ceramics Museum
 * Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art
 * Crafts Gallery of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
 * National Museum of Art, Osaka

In 2005, he produced the ceramic art sculpture SKY RELATION - 2005 for the domestic terminal of Central Japan International Airport (中部国際空港).