Early cultural roots shaped a legacy of multicultural impact
Reid Ozaki, an award-winning ceramics artist, community leader, and educator, passed away on July 25, 2024 at the age of 73. Born in Hilo, Hawaii in 1951, Ozaki moved to Tacoma in 1969 to attend the University of Puget Sound, where he majored in biology. He did, however, take a ceramics course as a junior in college, which led him to pursue MFA coursework.
While I never had the chance to personally meet Ozaki, I felt an immediate connection when viewing samplings of his stunning pieces displayed across different online galleries and stores. As I learned more about his upbringing, I found striking parallels to my own childhood.
Though he was raised in Hawaii and I hail from Nebraska, we had grandfathers who were central parts of our upbringings. Our grandfathers were among our most influential life teachers and were also bonsai aficionados. With our shared heritage, I was especially drawn to his creations integrating Japanese-inspired motifs and symbols.
Ozaki applied his interdisciplinary academic training in both art and biology by incorporating elements of nature in his work and synthesizing elements of Japanese and Pacific Northwest designs. However, he was also inspired by diverse approaches and techniques but with his own distinct style. In addition to his signature Japanese-influenced stoneware, including teapots for Chanoyu (tea ceremony) and vases for Ikebana (flower arranging), he drew inspiration from other sociocultural influences.
The artist described his distinct approach as synthesizing traditional Japanese artistic influences with Western materials and techniques. To illustrate this point, his website quoted Matsuo Bashō, a revered 17th century poet from the Edo period known for an especially revolutionary approach to thinking and writing about the natural world: “I do not seek to follow in the footsteps of men of old; I seek the things they sought.”
Ozaki is survived by his wife, Emma, who resides in Tacoma. I was able to speak with her briefly to learn more about her late husband’s legacy and life. Among others, she shared how he and Kristina Batiste, a fellow ceramics artist and potter in Tacoma, co-founded the Tacoma Pottery Salon, which has sustained a dynamic community of diverse and intergenerational ceramics practitioners.
The pottery salon provides “a chance for potters to exchange ideas, share pieces from their collections, and give career retrospectives to an engaged, interested group.”
In September 2023, the City of Tacoma and Tacoma Arts Commission with a 2023 AMOCAT Arts Award recognized Batiste and Ozaki for their contributions in building community, providing educational opportunities, and preserving historic pottery in the Pacific Northwest.
A gifted teacher who was committed to elevating excellence in the field, Ozaki taught in the art department at his alma mater, as well as Pacific Lutheran University and Tacoma Community College. During rapidly changing times, when more universities are cutting art courses and programs, Ozaki was dedicated to educating the next generation of potters despite these realities.
For example, in his ceramics courses, he taught more than technical skills. It was equally important for his students to understand the field’s connections to aesthetics and history. Outside of the classroom, he regularly shared his knowledge at colleges and universities across the nation, as well as nonprofit organizations, providing diverse audiences with interactive talks and workshops.
“Reid Ozaki was an extra special person. As a friend and student of his for more than 30 years, I learned firsthand that his passion and generosity while teaching and his thoughtful kindness beyond the classroom were only surpassed by his talents as a studio potter. He will be greatly missed,” reflected Rebecca Smart.
Not surprisingly, Smart’s experiences were widely shared by others, as Ozaki’s impact was felt well outside of the classroom.
An inspiring mentor and role model
I was able to reach a handful of Ozaki’s collaborators, colleagues, and former students. They all shared incredibly moving insights about Ozaki, whom they categorically described as a generous and humble mentor, leader, and teacher who deeply inspired and uplifted others.
In November 2009, in addition to displaying some of Ozaki’s Ikebana flower containers, the Olympia-based Childhood’s End Gallery featured a piece that drew from the German-inspired soda-firing technique.
“Reid’s ceramic work set a high bar for our gallery and his self-made community of potters. Elegant and timeless form, steadily mastered construction, coupled with surprising, risky, and distinct glazes made every piece a functional and striking work of art,” said Jonathan Happ, Director of the Olympia-based Childhood’s End Gallery.
“His presence and focus on historical study are a great loss to Childhood’s End Gallery, the arts greater community, and his craft.”
Phyllis Harrison, Vice President of LeRoy Jewelers and The Art Stop in Tacoma, shared similar sentiments, emphasizing Ozaki’s dedication to the local arts community at-large. She fondly shared that Ozaki had prepared a piece for a catalog mailing, a case with rhododendron, along with his accompanying personal statement, which, in part, read, in his own words:
“In the 30 odd years I have been a studio potter, there have been periods when I’ve felt the need to explore new directions in my work. In the past it has meant abandoning a successful line for something totally different. Sometimes it means covering past ground with a new eye. Perhaps this leads to new ideas and a new line of work; sometimes they are only a brief exploration.”
KOBO Seattle recently spotlighted Ozaki in a March 2024 news release, describing his featured functional ceramics piece as: “Dark and light, opaque and translucent, small galaxies, like looking in a tidepool (discovering new worlds each time you blink.) It’s quietly loud. Not fragile, but how can we not feel that way? We love that about Reid’s work. His pieces are multifaceted, much like all of us.”
“Reid created beautiful work but always humble about his work… to many of us, he held national treasure status in the Northwest arts community,” said KOBO Seattle’s Co-Owner Binko Chiong-Bisbee, who knew Ozaki for 30 years.
She shared that Ozaki was lined up to be one of the curators to bring together a group of artists from Hawaii, his home state, for the Simple Cup Show, co-sponsored with the Seward Park Clay Studio, in November 2024. The show will feature 60 artists from Japan and the United States, and over 240 cups will be featured.
“Reid looked forward to featuring ceramic artists and his colleagues from the various islands of Hawaii this fall. There is a huge void in our community without Reid,” reflected Chiong-Bisbee.
In all, Ozaki paved the way for generations of potters to bring their authentic selves to their craft, while also gently reminding them to honor those who came before them. He credited his former faculty mentors at the University of Puget Sound, especially F. Carlton Ball and Kenneth D. Stevens, and visiting artist Frederick L. Olsen, for influencing his techniques and unique design epistemology.
Similarly, Ozaki’s legacy will endure in our collective and individual memories, as we fondly remember where he came from and what he taught us about creativity, humanity, and nature’s many wonders through his incredible oeuvre.
Author’s acknowledgments: Special thanks to Emma Ozaki, Jana Fisher, and Phyllis Harrison for their helpful and generous support.
Rachel Endo is an award-winning educator, leader, and scholar who is currently based in the Tacoma area. She was born and raised in Nebraska and hails from a multi-generational Nikkei family. A first-generation college student, she graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha with honors, where she also earned her MA in Education and MPA in Public Management . She holds a PhD in Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. To learn more, including how to contact her directly, visit her website at: www.rachelendo.com
