Leseprobe

As his family was in the textile business, Yoichi Ohira (*1946) initially chose the path at hand and went to Tokyo to study fashion design at KuwasawaDesign School. YoungOhira quickly realised that fashion designwas not his calling. By chance, through books, he learned about about art glass design and found it inspiring. Upon graduating in 1969, he left the clearly defined family path and began a glassblowing apprenticeship at Kagami Crystal Company. Over a period of around four years, Ohira learned the techniques of glassblowing and engraving while working for the designers at Kagami and later, at a glass factory in Chiba Prefecture. During that time, Ohira read about Murano’s glass tradition. The special quality of Venetian glass-mak- ing made a lasting impression on him. Murano was able to invoke a venerable tradition going back to the MiddleAges as prestigious, innovative factorieswere established there and flourished in the 20th century. Themost gifted designers and glassblowerswere able to develop freely on the island near Venice. Beginning in the 1920s, the purity of form and simple, flowing designs created by the designers who worked for the Venetian glass factories enabled the talent of their glassblowers to shine. Their works had an artistic dimension that clearly distinguished them from the output of other global production centres. In 1973, Ohira left Japan in order to make Venice his permanent home. Immediately upon arrival, he enrolled at the art academy, the Accademia di Belle Arti, in the sculpture course and toured the glass factories on Murano for the first time. He made his first path-breaking acquaintance with Egidio Costantini, the owner of the Fucina degli Angeli factory, known for the production of sculptures in glass and its collaborations with Modernist artists—including Hans Arp, Georges Braque, Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Max Ernst, Lucio Fontana, Fernand Léger, and Pablo Picasso. From then on, Ohira focussed on the history and aesthetics of Venetian glass-making in his studies and worked part-time as a glassblower for Costantini. Over the years, he became familiar with the artisan craftsman- ship of Murano and gradually developed relationships with the local community. Although he learned plenty at Costantini, the factory’s focus, which was the production of artistic sculptures, was not where his interests lay. Ohira appreciated the Venetian glass tradition in its purest form and aspired to use its classical design language as a form of expression. By 1987, Ohira was firmly embedded in the lagoon region and equipped with many years of experience in the field of glassblowing. That year, he produced his first collection of artistic works at DeMajo (Fig. 1). Pursuing his wish to work in the traditional manner, the objects he created relied on the repertoire of Yoichi Ohira – path into the 21 st century JEAN MARIE GIRAUD 85