The leading ceramics quarterly Honoho Geijutsu recently published a very interesting survey in its 65th issue, listing the names of the most important (juyo) and popular (ninki) ceramic artists of the 20th century.
It was compiled by asking three different groups -- critics and curators, gallery owners and readers -- each to choose 10 potters who they felt outshone the rest. As can be expected, the lists, for the most part, were quite different. While the critics and curators had one set of criteria (for example, who expanded the boundaries of the field, or who made the most dramatic and courageous changes), the gallery folk were probably thinking along the lines of who sells for the highest price. Obviously, these two lines of thinking do intersect at certain names. The readers, most likely seasoned collectors, also selected many names on the pro's lists.
In the juyo category I was quite surprised to see that the overall first-place name, after all three groups' votes were tallied and combined, was that of Kenkichi Tomimoto (1886-1963). One of the main reasons for his topping the charts is that he really became the first professional independent potter (togeika) to set up a studio (after returning from England in 1911) and sell works that were highly individual. He went against the Mingei ideal of the "unknown craftsman," and even though he was a core member of the Mingei founding fathers, he rebelled and broke rank with his comrades over aesthetic philosophies. They didn't become enemies though; Tomimoto remained lifelong friends with Bernard Leach, Shoji Hamada, Kanjiro Kawai and Soetsu Yanagi.