Koichi Takita looks more like a Zen monk than a world-renowned ceramic artist. His shaven head and glowing demeanor exude the sense of a man who has attained enlightenment while playing with mud.
Even when I literally bumped into him at the Japan Folk Craft Museum in Tokyo a few months back, he said such an "accident" was a fortunate way to meet -- indeed, we are all linked together in some way, whether we are conscious of it or not.
Takita has been making pottery for more than 50 years and he's currently having his 19th Osaka exhibition at Umeda Hankyu, Sept. 11-17.