Farewell to Masa from Frauenau

Masahiro Hachida (1954-2025)

A few days ago, the message reached Frauenau that Masa and his wife Miyako tragically passed away on January 18th in their apartment in Kyoto in Japan. As a maker and designer, entrepreneur and teacher in glass and ceramics and their use in architecture, Masahiro Hachida made contact with Erwin Eisch back in the 1980s, and since then followed the ongoings in Frauenau, in and around the Bild-Werk summer academy, the Glass Museum and the surrounding merging glass art scene.

Over many years Masa brought Japanese young talents and apprentices from his workshop to Bild-Werk to experience and enjoy its creative atmosphere and learn from Erwin, Gretel and international course teachers. With his open heart and overwhelming hospitality, he invited and connected Bavarian friends and young artists to his country, to museums, glass art institutions, and, before all, to the spirit, beauty and creativity of Japan. Erwin, sometimes accompanied by Gretel or glass artist Ronald Fischer, travelled to Japan six times, for exhibitions and projects that Masa coordinated, but also to draw, paint and gain inspiration from Japanese culture.
Masa became the Japanese ambassador in international studio glass, and the Japanese voice of Bild-Werk and Frauenau. He was a mentor, a border-crosser, and most of all, a friend. Masa was known to turn up out of the blue, mostly alone, often accompanied by family or colleagues – and when he left, he seemed to be still here. It is unforgettable in Bild-Werk collective memory when in early years he carefully led a demonstration of a Japanese tea ceremony and introduced us to its fascinating philosophy. At the same time, he loved the humour and quirkiness of the Bavarian Forest, the party nights at Bild-Werk and the famous Kirwa village beer festival (where he was even seen dancing on the tables).
The last time Masa came to Frauenau, after the deaths of Erwin and Gretel in January and June 2022, was to bid his farewell to them, but not to Frauenau. On the 19th of August we, as daughters, in-laws, grandchildren, with Masa in our middle, sat around the large dinner table in the kitchen of Erwin’s and Gretel’s artists’ villa in Frauenau. At this place, over some 40 years Erwin, Gretel and Masa, together with many others, had made their friendship grow. They talked, discussed, planned, had fun, ate and drank. Now we exchanged memories and talked about connections, and journeys – ours’, in our time, but also back to the seafarers between Japan and Europe of old days.
Last week Masa’s and Miyako’s son Zen invited to celebrate his parents’ departure “like fellow travelers who meet each other on a journey”. We send our heartfelt wishes and condolences from Frauenau to the Hachida family. And yes, let us continue to meet and travel together in memory of Masa and Miyako.

Katharina Eisch-Angus,
for Bild-Werk Frauenau and the family of Erwin and Gretel Eisch

Tea ceremony with Masa (on the right) at Bild-Werk in summer 1989.

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Masahiro Hachida
Brief History
1954      Born in Gifu
1987      Part-time instructor at Toyama City Institute of Glass Art
1987      instructor at OSAKA DESIGNERS COLLEGE Glass course
2004    Part-time instructor at Tama Art University (Tama Art University/Department of Ceramic, Glass, and Metal Works)