Don't Make a Pattern from a Pattern: Kenkichi Tomimoto and the Poetics of Color and Words

Don't create patterns from patterns: Kenkichi Tomimoto and the poetics of color and words

"Don't make a pattern out of a pattern."
When I came across these words, I quietly straightened my back. This sentence left behind by Tomimoto Kenkichi is not simply the creed of a ceramic artist, but resonates like a quiet question addressed to all those involved in creative work. What is a pattern? Where does a design come from? Aren't we simply tracing beauty that already exists? Tomimoto's words are a warning against inertia and formalism, and also a beacon that urges us to return to the origins of creativity.

Tomimoto Kenkichi was born in Ando Village, Nara, in 1886. He studied design at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and traveled to London, where he was exposed to William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. After returning to Japan, his encounter with Bernard Leach led him to pursue a career in ceramics. In all of his works—white porcelain, blue and white porcelain, and overglaze enamel—he never simply pursued technique, but instead continued to search for the poetry inherent in the patterns. His works are given names reminiscent of tanka or haiku poems, such as "Moonlit Night in the Bamboo Grove," "Rapid Rain on the Yamato River," "Fern," and "Four-Petal Flower." These names demonstrate that his patterns are not merely visual decoration, but rather "poetic forms" that reflect the atmosphere of nature and imaginary landscapes.

The reason behind Tomimoto's statement that "you should not create a pattern from a pattern" was likely due to his discomfort with the repetitive designs that were prevalent in the craft world at the time. There was a tendency to be satisfied with tracing existing designs and merely arranging the form. This lacked the emotion that arises from nature and everyday life. Tomimoto believed that patterns were something that fixed in form the rhythms and structures found in nature, or the scenes that arise in the mind. This is why his patterns have a mysterious sense of space, quietly stirring the memories and emotions of the viewer.

I cannot help but feel a resonance with this approach and the "Color Calendar" that WABISUKE writes daily. WABISUKE's Color Calendar is not about giving color names to products. Rather, it is an effort to poetically reexamine color itself, capturing in words the seasonal aura and local memories that reside in traditional Japanese colors. For example, "White Wisteria Gray" evokes the transience of white wisteria blooming at the end of spring and the serenity of gray. "Frost Night Blue" evokes the tense air of a winter night and the tranquil light that lies deep within. These color names are not simply descriptions of colors, but "color poetry" that put into words the changing of the seasons, the sound of the wind, and fragments of memory.

Tomimoto's pattern-making required an eye for nature. He picked up unconscious beauty found in nature, such as the overlapping leaves of a bamboo forest, the trail of raindrops, or the repetition of veins in a fern leaf, and sublimated it into patterns. His work does not simply copy nature, but has a gaze that is in dialogue with it and able to decipher the rhythms and structures hidden within. Patterns are not about cutting out fragments of nature, but about giving form to the breath of nature.

Tomimoto was also sensitive to the resonance between patterns and words. The poetic titles attached to his works do not limit the meaning of the patterns, but function as a device to stimulate the viewer's imagination. When patterns and words illuminate each other, the works go beyond mere visual objects and become stories connected to memories and emotions. This has the exact same structure as the short poems and narratives that accompany the color names in WABISUKE's color calendars. Words and colors, colors and memories—poetic designs are born at the point where these intersect.

Tomimoto's patterns were also an effort to capture the poetry found in everyday life. His pottery is designed to be used in everyday life. For this reason, he felt that the patterns also needed to reflect the poetry of daily life, such as the rhythm of life, the changing of the seasons, and family memories. This overlaps with WABISUKE's approach of creating a color calendar that accompanies everyday life, "feeling the seasons and tracing memories through color." Poetic design is about capturing the poetry found in everyday life and giving it form. Tomimoto's patterns and WABISUKE's color calendar are both part of this effort.

Patterns are the form of memory. Poetic designs are traces of emotion. Listening carefully to Tomimoto Kenkichi's words, we today once again gaze upon nature, cherish life, and capture the emotion deep within our hearts. Rather than creating patterns from patterns, we create patterns from emotion. I believe that this act is the very origin of poetic creation. Guided by Tomimoto's patterns, we would like to continue to quietly and carefully create our own designs of color and words.