Gospel, art enrich life of Japanese craftsman 

By Greg Hill Church News staff writer 

Tonoyama, Japan -- A prospering artist living in a Japanese paradise, Taiichi Aoba's current life situation belies his past when he was struggling to succeed in his craft and grow in faith. His desire to follow in his father's artistic footsteps conflicted with the teenager's new faith after he joined the Church in 1975, but all things have turned out well, he said during a Church News interview.
One of the primary marketing methods for ceramic artists such as he and his father was the traditional Japanese tea ceremonies on Sunday afternoons. Tea sets could be displayed and sold to those participating in the ceremonies. But Taiichi had been taught to keep the Sabbath Day holy and that he should not drink tea.

The conflict between abiding by the will of his father and his desire to live his newfound religion came to a head just prior to the Church's 1975 area conference in Tokyo. He wanted to attend. His father wanted him to stay home.

When the branch president asked him to represent the branch at the conference, he made an agreement with his father that if he could go to Tokyo, he would give up his involvement in the Church afterward. Although he enjoyed hearing President Spencer W. Kimball and other Church 
leaders at the conference, the 20-year-old fledgling artist kept his agreement after returning home to Imabari on Shikoku, Japan's fourth-largest island.

For months, his only contact with the Church was a monthly visit by his branch president/home teacher. Brother Aoba said his faith dwindled during that time until finally he accepted a cup of coffee to drink with his father and some of his father's art students who were at their home. But before he could take the first sip, there was a knock on the door. It was his home teacher and the full-time missionaries. Embarrassed, he subtly slid the coffee cup behind his back. About 10 days later, he received a postcard from Mutsumi Kadota inviting him to attend a convert baptism in the branch. Brother Aoba had known Mutsumi since their school days when they would draw pictures together. Coincidently, they investigated the Church at the same time, attending MIA together. Although she faced opposition similar to his, she was baptized a month before he was. She had sent invitations to several less-active members of the branch, but Brother Aoba took his personally and thought, he said, "I must go to this baptism." That was the beginning of his return to full activity.
"If not for priesthood home teaching and that postcard from Mutsumi, I wouldn't be active today," he said.

He married Mutsumi and made the decision to pursue his art on his own. He said his father wasn't bitter about the Church, but was eager for him to succeed and worried that his concentration on one religion and his inability, because of the Word of Wisdom, to participate in the tea ceremonies would cause him to fail. Brother Aoba said, "After I was married, I decided no matter how poor I was, I wouldn't ask my father for help because I wanted to show that I made the right decision."
That attitude meant five years of struggling to gain a reputation, something he could have borrowed from his father under other circumstances. But gradually he made his own name and became more and more successful. "I demonstrated to my father that I could succeed and be faithful, and now I have a good relationship with my father," he said.

Professionally, his success is unquestioned. He makes his living by showing his ceramics at four personal shows each year, along with selling some creations out of his home. He works hard all year to make enough pieces to market to those clamoring to buy; his wife is his only assistant. He also teaches a few students in his workshop, using advanced students to help the newer ones. Many of them come to class just so they can have access to his equipment. He has a gas oven for them to fire their ceramics, but all of his are fired the old fashioned way, in kilns built from salvaged brick and fueled by wood. He said he often has to tend the kilns for 72 consecutive hours during heavy 
firing times to regulate the heat and move the ceramics through the process.

The result is an assortment of colorful ceramics including bowls, plates, vases and lamps. Two of his plates are part of the decor of the Celestial Room of the new Fukuoka Japan Temple. A vase depicting Lehi's dream of the Tree of Life is on display in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City.

Through his artistic success, he has been able to succeed also in his life's higher priorities: his family and the Church. He and his wife are rearing their five children -- ages 3-17 -- in a place they sometimes refer to as "The Garden of Eden," and with good cause. Their village, Tonoyama, is set in a basin surrounded by small but majestic, evergreen-covered mountains. Their spacious contemporary house with a traditional Japanese tile roof sits next to a rice paddy on one side, and a stone's throw from a clear, swift-running river on the other. Flowers and greenery truly give it the appearance of a paradise. There are plenty of places for the family to spread out to enjoy life and each other. Brother Aoba's workshop and kilns are immediately adjacent to the home, saving him commute time that he can, instead, spend with his family.

The faith that Brother and Sister Aoba shared at the time of their marriage has sustained and strengthened them as it has increased over the years. He was recently released from the Japan Hiroshima Mission presidency and made president of the Matsuyama Japan District on Shikoku. He said he is eager to strengthen the district towards its eventually becoming a stake.

Sister Aoba is faithfully teaching an early-morning seminary class of from five to 10 students, including two of her own. It takes her about 30 minutes to drive to Niihama where the class meets, and 45 minutes back during rush-hour traffic. She loads her school children's bikes in the van and drops them off at school on the way home. Her calling requires the family to start the day early in the morning; Sister Aoba is up at 3 a.m., Brother Aoba at 4 a.m., and the children at 5 a.m. But the benefits are a blessing, he said, including an earlier bed time, a consistent schedule, family time and time for gospel study.

So as an accomplished artist, Brother Aoba's true masterpiece seems to be a montage of family and faith.


© 2000 Deseret News Publishing Co.