This is a paper clay doll from Mr. Kimura’s high school years, before he began to make ceramic youkai. He enjoyed Japanese Sentai (superhero team) TV shows, similar to Power Rangers in the West, and anime like “Fist of the North Star” and “Saint Seiya” which influenced his work. Originally these figures were just made of colored paper clay which would gradually begin to fall apart, so he started to reinforce them with sellotape. Similar to his ceramic Youkai, each character is unique and they have elements of Kimura-san’s particular traits.
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KIMURA Koichi
KIMURA produces his original “Yokai” monsters through his pottery, such as a kappa (a mythological water goblin), monkeys with humorous expressions, or creatures with body parts such as their limbs, eyes, nose and mouth that are freely combined. He sometimes makes many works based on the same motifs, but he still ultimately creates a variety of different works. When he was in elementary school, he became a fan of “Yokai” because of Shigeru Mizuki, a famous manga artist. He initially copied those seen in cartoons, and gradually began drawing his own originals. After he started attending Shuko Gakuen (social welfare facility), he gradually began creating ceramics, and now he makes three-dimensional ceramic objects at the facility, along with drawing a lot of pictures with a pencil on B5 size paper at home.