Ban Kajitani
Birth Date: 1941

Artist Gallery
Ban Kajitani apprenticed in Japan following his graduation from fine art school in Tokyo. He moved to the United States to attend Utah State University where he earned an MFA degree in Ceramic Art studying under Larry Elsner. During this time, Ban travelled to the national parks in southern Utah, which in turn became a substantial influence for his work with clay.  Directly after graduation, Kajitani accepted a ceramics faculty position at Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD) in Columbus, Ohio.   Marbled ceramic ware, the basis of this artist's work, was produced in China at least as early as the T’ang dynasty (618-907 CE), and may have been inspired by previous ceramic techniques used on Roman pottery.  In Japan, marbled ware, called neriage, is formed on the wheel, nerikomi is handbuilt often in a press mold.  Both are traditionally made by layering, cross-cutting or wedging clay of different colors, creating patterns resembling geological strata, overlapping clouds, wood grain or even a basket-weave.*   "My contemporary neriage ware was inspired by a Jeep trip through the canyons of southern Utah, where the piles of sedimentary rock, built up in a sequence, occur as distinct layers.  I chose marbled ware as a satisfactory solution to capture the quality of the landscape and to express the geological quality of the terrain" wrote Kajitani in a 1979 article in Ceramics Monthly magazine.   Ban's neriage or nerikomi work is made from personally formulated clay bodies. Whether making vessels, tiles or sculpture, the colored clays were each mixed intentionally with red sand, grey sand, and colored metallic oxides.  At CCAD, he created many paper-thin vessels and some large, standing sculptures, but his most significant work was a huge multiple-tile nerikomi wall at the entrance to Kinney Hall (then V-Hall).   Kajitani left CCAD sometime before 1992 to set up a studio and pursue a full-time career in Kasama, Ibaraki, Japan where he now resides.   *Adapted from an article by Ban Kajitani “Neriage and Nerikomi Techniques”, February 1979 Ceramics Monthly magazine.