Born to a sculptor father in Utsunomiya city, Saeki Moriyoshi began studying ceramics in the Department of Crafts at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music where he graduated with a master’s degree in 1977. Saeki is one of a handful of ceramists who work with inlays or zogan, a decorative technique in which incised motifs on the surface of the bisque are filled with different colors or types of clay. He is fluent in both pictorial and abstract patterning in his works and is especially known for the poetic landscape imagery he creates on vessels with the exquisite inlay techniques. Saeki’s signature images on his vessels are Japanese landscapes of lakes, forests (especially of Japanese zelkova trees), and mountains executed in this inlay technique, and not with enamel painting techniques typically used to create such images.
Selected Awards & Exhibitions
2013 Heritage: Japanese Works of Art by Contemporary Artists Onishi Gallery | New York
2004 Gold Prize recipient at the Otagi Village Hokkaido Creamics Exhibitions, the Issui-kai Award at the 66th Issui-kai Ceramics Exhibition
1991 Recipient of Tokyo Metropolitan Government Education Committee Award for Marbled Clay Vase with Inlaid Tree Design
1989 Toguchi Prefecture Cultural Incitement Award
1988 Award of Excellence at International Ceramics Exhibition
- Public Collections
- Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music Archives
- Shiga Prefectural Togei No Mori | Sano City
- Yoshizawa Memorial Museum of Art
- Museum of Kyushu
- Sangyo University