Mountain Man 山の人（山の男）

Tsuji made his debut with figurative wood carvings, but turned to cement and iron for his materials after the War. In the mid-1950s, he began to work in ceramics. Referring to these abstract ceramic sculptures that easily stand taller than a child, Tsuji stated: "In Tokyo before the War, there was a kind of sweet called "apnju". It was a hybrid, somewhere between "pan" (Western-style bread) and "manju"(Japanese pastry). Perhaps my recent works are like panju." In the 1950s, a number of Japanese artists who had been involved in traditional art produced abstract works unfettered by convention. Their desire was to win recognition on the international scene. Kazuo Yagi, for example, who founded the Sodei-sha Group, fell under Tsuji's influence and produced non-utilitarian, ceramic objects that do not take the form of vessels. Tsuji attempted to dismantle artistic genres through an abstract style based on the Zen Buddhist faith he had adhered to from his twenties. For this he won universal acclaim. The work shown here was exhibited at "the 29th Biennale di Venezia" of 1958.