Kanjiro Kawai（河井寛次郎）
Kanjiro Kawai
1890 - 1966
Kanjirou Kawai was a Kyoto-based potter within the folk tradition of Japanese and Korean ceramics and a key figure in Mingei (Japanese folk art movement).
He was a long-time friend of Shōji Hamada, Soetsu Yanagi, and Bernard Leach with whom he co-founded the Japan Folk Art Association in 1926.
He refused all official honors, such as the designation of “Living National Treasures,” He often decorated his works with bold, semiabstract blossom motifs, which he painted freely in under-glaze cobalt blue, iron brown, and copper red.