FIX AND MAKE

Yutaka Ohtaki is a design repairer for Object Therapy.

Ohtaki is the master craftsman of Urushi Ohtaki in Murakami, a lacquerware shop dating back to the Taishō era of the early 20th century.

He graduated from the Design Department of Musashino Art University in 1975, after which he joined the family business. His artworks have been recognized with awards in prestigious exhibitions, including the Japan Fine Arts Exhibition and the Japan Contemporary Craft Exhibition. 

Previously Ohtaki made abstract and semi-abstract pictorial and sculptural lacquer works, but more recently he has been focusing on traditional Japanese craft, including kintsugi, in which urushi tree sap lacquer is used to repair broken ceramics that are then dressed with gold. Ohtaki intends to produce “heartwarming” objects that create closer interactions between humans, in their everyday lives, and between humans and nature.