"Everybody sets out to do something, and everybody does something, but no one does what he sets out to do," said Irish author George Moore of the good intentions that abound in life. Setting an idea in motion is often more important than the end result, whether one creates products, ideas, or life itself. Kenkichi Tomimoto (1886-1963) is one example someone of Japan's finest and most influential ceramic artists, ever. Although he is well known for his huge ornamental works, in his own words he wished "to produce large quantities of inexpensive vessels that have been designed by a true artist and manufactured in a coordinated, well-organized pottery, in order that every kind of person, in every kind of house can use it; inexpensive pottery that anybody can buy and that nobody can afford to be without."
Compared to other countries, Japan does have a sense of tableware over and above the commonplace, but yet nothing like Tomimoto envisioned. His dreams for setting our tables are now on display at an exhibition of over 110 of his works titled "Daily Vessels by Kenkichi Tomimoto"at The National Museum of Modern Art, Crafts Gallery in Tokyo, but he was never able to mass produce his tableware in the affordable way that he had aimed for, partly because his designs kept on being copied and produced more cheaply.
In a survey of museum curators, critics, and gallery owners conducted by the "Honoho Geijutsu (The Art of Fire, 2001)" magazine as to which ceramic artists were the most important of the 20th century, Tomimoto was ranked first in Japan, way ahead of his more famous contemporaries such as Shoji Hamada. What was so important about Tomimoto?