For some, life-changing moments involve a traumatic experience or a piercing epiphany. For others, something as simple as a teapot can elicit transformation.
So it was for ceramic designer Masatoshi Sakaegi, who as a high school student in 1960 happened upon the work of the ceramicist Masahiro Mori at a Tokyo department store. What would seem to be banal happenstance sparked aesthetic ambitions that have culminated over 40 years later in "Ceramic Design of Masatoshi Sakaegi: Rhythm and Waves," currently on exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (MOMAT).
The 1960s in Japan were a time of acute social transformation. The postwar "economic miracle" was in full swing and an influx of wealth brought with it a new demand for well-designed, high-quality material goods.