‘Tommy’ Kakinuma taught some of the founding members of the BC Potters’ Guild in the fifties and sixties, in the UBC Pottery Huts. Recently collectors have been finding his pieces in antique shops in Vancouver and wonder who he was. It seems very little has been known about him.

Blogger Stacy Reynaud bought a bird pot from John Lawrence of Doda Antiques. John has a huge collection of early BC pottery and a wealth of knowledge about the artists. After Stacy mentioned her find on her blog Thomas Kakinuma’s family contacted her and invited her to visit them and see more of their collection.

http://www.bijouliving.com/2008/05/thanks-for-knowledge-vancouver.html

Since then Stacy has been in touch with Debra Sloan, the Potters’ Guild’s voluntary historian, who was excited to learn that Thomas’ wife is still alive (98) and that they still own lots of Kakinuma pots and sculptures. UBC’s Ceramics Curator Dr. Carol Mayer was equally interested and has done some research into Kakinuma’s education, shows and teaching. It is clear that the work falls under the ‘Mid-Century Modern’ umbrella and thus attracted the attention of Vancouver Art Gallery’s MCM curator Allan Collier. Allan suggested that there be a show of the work, and Darrin Morrison has now curated this collection at the West Vancouver Museum.

A Saturday afternoon drive to the museum with the prospect of slide talks by these four people was actually my idea of a perfect pastime! Yes, the pots and sculptures are reminiscent of work from the period when I started being interested in pottery. Tommy said that he preferred to make large sculptures but the many small animal pieces are what kept the family solvent. Debra gave us a short history of Kakinuma and his importance to the BC Ceramics community. She remembers her mentors fondly describing his demonstrations and lessons out at UBC. Carol followed up with her detailed research into any reference to him in the UBC, Potters Guild and Crafts Association archives.

The catalogue for the show, ‘The Ceramic Art of Thomas Kakinuma’, a worthwhile $10 at the museum, gives a good biography of this important BC potter. I won’t try to duplicate it here except to say that TK was born in 1908 in Japan and left there to look for training and a career as a painter, arriving in Vancouver in 1937. For the War years he lived in Toronto, graduating from the Ontario College of Art in 1947. He spent two years at the Art Students League in New York. There is one delightful painting of his from this time in the current show.

But Thomas chose to specialize in pottery, moved back to Vancouver, took pottery lessons and met the artists working here then, including BC Binning. He then taught at the Huts and produced his sculpture and pots for most of the fifties and sixties, winning prizes nationally and internationally.

Allan Collier talked about the artists who represent Mid-Century Modernism in BC, showed us images of buildings, furniture and pottery from the period. He made a good case for Kakinuma’s inclusion in the group and informed us that he is working on a show covering this topic for 2019 at Vancouver Art Gallery.

The final speaker was Stacy who explained how she’d come across Kakinuma, and her excitement at being at the show’s recent opening. I was touched to hear that Kakinuma’s wife was there and was overjoyed to see the Peacock sculpture Thomas had made for their wedding carefully displayed in the show. Interestingly as the show was being installed a museum visitor mentioned that he had a Kakinuma bronze sculpture, ‘Two Nuns’, in his garden so Darrin Morrison made a space for it too.

Enjoy my random selection of pieces from the show – functional pots, sculptures and amusing animals, and keep your eyes open for Kakinuma work around Vancouver.

The show continues until March 10th.

This note came from a Vancouver pottery collector:

“This owl was a gift on the birth of our son, 45 years ago. We didn’t know who the potter was until today. Thanks for the blog.”

SaveSave