青幻舎 SEIGENSHA Art Publishing

Since opening his studio in 1985 in his hometown of Takaoka, Koji Hatakeyama has tirelessly pursued his creative endeavors in the fields of artistic and spatial expression. Ever dedicated to exploring the possibilities of bronze, he has reached out widely beyond Japan and garnered high acclaim both at home and internationally; his works are now housed in the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Museum of Art, Tokyo, among other world-renowned institutions. This volume offers an overview both of Hatakeyama’s oeuvre and of his exhibitions and projects around the globe.

For Hatakeyama, bronze is far more than simply the stuff from which his works are made. Bronze harbors within it memories passed down from time immemorial, and it is when the “mind” of the metal fuses as one with his own mind that his works are born.

Here is a chronicle of one artist’s cogitation and practice over four decades of grappling with bronze—and a spectacular display, too, of all the possibilities that this material holds.

Koji Hatakeyama was born in 1956 in Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture. He graduated from the Kanazawa College of Art in 1980 and opened his own metalworking studio in Takaoka in 1985. From 2017 to 2022 he served as a professor at his alma mater. Major honors include the 2000 Takashimaya Art Award, the 2007 Sano Renaissance Metal Casting Exhibition Grand Prize, the 2012 MOA Mokichi Okada Award MOA Museum of Art Prize, and the 2023 Asian Art in London Modern & Contemporary Asian Art Award. His works are housed in collections including the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, National Museum of Scotland, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Musée des Arts décoratifs, and National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.