Book, song, site: Fine Arts Professor Kaname Takada

Kaname Takada (Fine Arts, 1989) has a lifelong interest in ceramics dating back to his time as a teen in Kasama, Japan, where he helped out at his uncle’s pottery studio. In the decades since, Takada, a Professor of Fine Arts at CCAD, went on to earn an MFA in Fine Arts and Ceramics at the University of Notre Dame, in 1992, and has exhibited work in France, New Zealand, Japan, Austria, and throughout the United States. His work is represented at the Columbus Metropolitan Library, Canton Museum of Art, Zanesville Museum of Art, Ohio Craft Museum, on CCAD's campus and at other places both public and private.

Kaname and his wife Sumiko Takada, a fellow ceramicist, established StudioTakada in 2010, and live in the Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington. We recently asked him to share his favorite book, song, and website:

Book: Books on Rakugo

During my annual trip to Japan, I try to visit used bookstores as often as I can looking for books on “Rakugo,” a form of Japanese verbal entertainment. I have a stack of those books next to my bed and pick one or two of them every night before I fall asleep. Somehow reading about the past and current performers of popular entertainment brings me back to Japan of my youth that may not exist anymore.

Song: Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood

I don’t know why, but I like the song.

Site: Letters to the Editor, The Columbus Dispatch

It enlightens and frightens me.

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