Catalog (825)

A lot of drama in this crispy glazed tsubo deeply scored by the artists fingers, the trailing divets filled with running ash glaze by Murakoshi Takuma, two deep punctures in the side where it sank into the kiln supports, and a large artist performed gold repair where it had adhered to the kiln floor. The gold glimmers from the darkest part of the vessel, where it was charred black from laying in the embers. The fingerlets of flowing ash all circle the body, seeming to point out the flaw, accentuating the character. So raw, it speaks of another world, untamed. It is 37 cm (14-1/2 inches) tall, 33 cm (13 inches) diameter and in excellent condition. It comes with a wooden placard signed by the artist and titled Yakishime Hakkin-sai Otsubo (Unglazed Lage Tsubo with Gold).
Murakoshi Takuma is one of those enigmas who simply lives to work with clay. He does not seek to make a living through pottery, but through his primal approach has earned a following which keeps his work in high demand. He was born in Aichi prefecture in 1954 and began his stroll down the pottery path in 1980 under the tutelage of Kyoto potter Umehara Takehira. Favoring very rough Shigaraki glaze, he established his own kiln in 1997 in the Kiyomizu pottery district of Kyoto, then moved to Nagaoka in 2002. Although eschewing the world of competitive exhibitions, he has been picked up by many of Japan’s preeminent galleries, including private exhibitions at the prestigious Kuroda Toen of Tokyo’s Ginza District.

A breathtaking swirling platter by important contemporary Shino artist Hayashi Shotaro enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Manyosai Zuimaki Ita Shiho-zara (Four-sided Slab Dish with Myriad Leaves Color Tornado). This Manyosai glaze is the artists unique forte and one of many important additions he has made over the years to the world od Mino pottery. The thick slab is 40 x 32 cm (16 x 12-1/2 inches) and stands up to 10 cm (4 inches) tall; in excellent condition.
Hayashi Shotaro (b. 1947) is one of the biggest names in contemporary Mino ceramics. Although initially entering regular employment upon graduating high school, in 1967 he returned to Toki city to help his brother Kotaro. Very quickly within him was born the urge to create. He won the highest award at the Gifu Prefectural Art Exhibition in 1968, and from there his talent blossomed. He established his own kiln in 1974. Since then his list of exhibitions and awards has been amazing, including the Nihon Dento Kogei Ten (National Traditional Arts and Crafts Exhibition), Governors Prize and five times winner of Best of Show at the Asahi Togei Ten (Asahi Ceramics Exhibition), and Best of Show at Gifu Prefectural Exhibition. At the Mino Ceramics Exhibition, in addition to the highest award, the Mino Ceramics Award, he has received all three major awards, including the Shoroku Award and the Kobei Award.

A breathtaking new look at Shigaraki Anagama ware by Furutani Taketoshi enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Shigaraki Shizen-yu Yohen Shinogi Tsubo (Natural Ash Glazed Blade Style Shigaraki Tsubo). The artist has coil formed the vessel, with thick walls, then incised a waving pattern leaving a saw-tooth surface dusted in ash with brilliant hi-iro and dark charring. It is 31 cm (12 inches) tall and in excellent condition. Directly from the artist this summer.
Furutani Taketoshi was born the son of master craftsman Furutani Hirofumi in 1974, graduating the Shigaraki Industrial High School Ceramics department in 1992 before entering the Shiga prefectural Ceramics Research Facility studying wheel technique, graduating the following year. He then did a year apprenticeship at a pottery before re-entering for a second course at the Research Facility, graduating in 1995. From that year he returned to the family kiln, receiving the family tradition from both his grandfather Furutani Churoku and father Furutani Hirofumi. Subverting the self, he makes simple, organic pots which have a timeless quality, very much rooted in the now, but paying homage to the traditions past down through the ages. He was named a Designated Traditional Craftsman (Dento Kogeishi) in 2013. He has exhibited with the Nihon Dento Kogeiten among others, and still works closely with his father at the family kiln.

Words fall short on describing this breathtaking vessel by master potter Kimura Morikazu enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Biryu Kessho Yohen Chawan. It is quite large at 14.5 cm (nearly 6 inches) diameter, 8 cm tall and is in perfect condition.
Kimura Morikazu was born to the house of a Kyo-yaki potter and studied under Ishiguro Munemaru, He established his first kiln in the Gojo Zaka area of Kyoto in 1947, moving to Fukui in 1976. He is held in the collection of both the Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art and the Imperial Household Agency. He has been displayed at innumerable private exhibitions in addition to major exhibitions such as the Nitten, Nihon Dento Kogeiten(National Traditional Crafts Exhibition) and Nihon Togei Ten (National Ceramics Exhibition) among others. Winner of the Japan Ceramics Society (JCS) award, purchased by the Ministry of Foreign affairs. Morikazu has been incredibly influential on the subsequent generation of potters.

The Fundo stamp of Living National Treasure Kaneshige Toyo is impressed into the base of this classical Bizen Mizusashi by Toyo named Fuku no kami (God of Fortune) by 12th Grandmaster of the Omotesenke School of Tea Keio Sosa (Seisai), enclosed in a wooden box titled Bizen Mimitsuki Mizusashi, Na: Fuku no Kami and signed by Seisai., It retains the original ceramic lid as well as a lacquered lid also bearing an alternate signature of Seisai. It is 17.5 cm (7 inches) diameter, 15 cm (6 inches) tall and in excellent condition.
Seisai (1863-1937) was the 12th generation head of Omotesenke school of Tea. At a time when the tea ceremony was in decline after the Meiji Restoration, he worked to revive it and led to its prosperity during the Taisho period. He also endeavored to rebuild the headmaster's tea room, which was destroyed in a fire in 1906.
Kaneshige Toyo (1896-1967) is one of the leaders of the group of artisans who sought to revive the tradition as it was flagging to extinction in the pre-war years and considered one of the most important figures in 20th century Bizen. It is Toyo who has been credited with having rediscovered the techniques of the Azuchi Momoyama period. Born in Bizen, Okayama prefecture, into the potting family of artisan Kaneshige Baiyo, Toyo began working with clay in 1910. By the 1930’s, he was thoroughly ensconced in the research of ancient techniques. Over the next 20 years, he was to become a leading figure in Japanese pottery, and lifelong friend of Kawakita Handeishi, Kitaoji Rosanjin and Miwa Kyuwa. Post-war, in an effort to elevate Japanese pottery, he, along with Arakawa Toyozo and Kato Tokuro, helped to establish the Nihon Kogei kai (Japan Art Crafts Association). He was designated Living National Treasure in 1956, and subsequently received the Order of Cultural Merit from Okayama for his lifework. For more see the new important tome by the Miho Museum: The Bizen (2019) according to which “He formed the Bizen Pottery Society, mentored the younger generation, participated in the founding of the Japan Kogei Association and built the foundations for the postwar success of Bizen ware”.

Five unique plates by Tomimoto Kenkichi, from various eras depicting bucolic scenery each uniquely signed on the back. Kenkichi changed his signature regularly, which makes it very easy to date his works. These date from the 1950s. Each is between 18.5 and 19.5 cm diameter (roughly 7-1/2 inches). One has a slight firing flaw near at the rim, otherwise they are all in excellent condition. A smaller 6th plate will be included, bonus.
Tomimoto Kenkichi (1886-1963) is one of Japan's finest and most important ceramic artists ever, voted the number one most influential potter of the 20th century by Honoho Magazine. He was born into a privileged family in Nara, and would spend part of his youth in England studying design and manufacturing techniques. In 1950, Tomimoto became the first professor to the Ceramic Section of the Department of Crafts, Kyoto City University of Arts. He was also involved in a number of art associations and art universities throughout his life and trained many influential ceramic artists of modern Japan. He would be appointed member of the Japan Imperial Art Academy, as well as designated an intangible cultural asset (Mukei Bunkazai or Living National Treasure), and awarded the Order of Cultural Merit. For an excellent read see the recent article by John Wright in Arts of Asia.

A ceramic free standing architectural sculpture by Morino Taimei (Hiroaki) enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Work 88-30 Kaiheki (Matte Blue). The naïve modeling and playful use of colors make for a fun and energetic visual. Works from this series are held in the Brooklyn Museum and Manyoan Collection among others. Stoneware on wood stand, the ceramic slab is 20 x 3 x 27 cm (8 x 1-1/2 x 10-1/2 inches) plus the wooden base and is in perfect condition. It comes wrapped in the original stamped cloth pouch with the artists shiori.
Morino Taimei was born in Kyoto in 1934, and was first accepted into the Nitten National Exhibition at a relatively young age in 1957 (a year before graduating the Kyoto Municipal University of Fine Art!). In 1960 he received the prestigious Hokutosho prize at the same National Exhibition. In the early 60s he worked as a guest professor at the University of Chicago. Upon his return to Japan his career began to lift off with a second Hokutosho Prize at the Nitten, followed by the governor’s prize and others at the Gendai Kogei Ten (Modern National Crafts Exhibition). He was subsequently selected for display at the Kyoto and Tokyo Natby ional Museums in 1972 and was accepted into the first Nihon Togei Ten that same year. Since his list of exhibitions and prizes has continued to grow, with subsequent selections in the Tokyo and Kyoto museums of Art, as well as exhibitions in Paris, Italy, America, Canada, Denmark and others. In 2007 he received the Japan Art Academy Prize, an award to a work of art similar in weight to the bestowing of Living National Treasure to an artist. This puts the artist in a small club, rare and important. For more information on the artist see Contemporary Japanese Ceramics, Fired with Passion by (Lurie/Chan, 2006) or the recent exhibition of works titled Generosity in Clay from the Natalie Fitzgerald Collection.

A canonical misshapen Shigaraki Jar by legendary female artist Koyama Kiyoko enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Shigaraki Shizen-yu Uzukumaru. The igneous coating of mottled natural ash glaze containing clusters of charring gives testament to the fluctuations in temperature during the firing which give the work of this pioneering female artist such a unique quality. Here the form is classic medieval Shigaraki with a cross-work pattern called Higaki engraved into the shoulder of the jar. It is 21 cm (8-1/2 inches) tall and in excellent condition.
Koyama Kiyoko was the subject of the film Hi-Bi (2005) and the recent NHK television drama Scarlet. She is the preeminent pioneering female wood firing artist in Japan. Born in Sasebo, Nagasaki in 1938, she went to Shigaraki village, home of one of Japan’s Six Ancient Kilns. There she studied the traditional techniques, and bore the brunt of centuries of discrimination against women. Through it all she persevered to become one of the most highly sought of Shigaraki potters. For more on her works see Modern Japanese Ceramics in American Collections, Japan Society New York, 1993

A voluminous Chawan Tea bowl by Sawada Hayato enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Kakusai Chawan. The hand built angular form is slip glazed with black clay inlayed creating paleolithic pattens tinged with red. It is roughly 15 cm (6 inches) wide, 9.5 cm (just under 4 inches) tall and in new condition. Sawada Hayato was born in Kasama City, Ibaraki Prefecture in 1978, and graduated Ryutsu Keizai University in 2000, going on to further study at the Tokyo University of Social Welfare from which he graduated in 2004. The following year he was selected for the 52nd Japan Traditional Craft Exhibition where he would be awarded in 2012 the Japan Kōgei Association Award. In 2013 he was awarded at the Kikuchi Biennale. Since his work has been shown in Shanghai, Europe, London and the United States. His work is held in the colletions of the Ibaraki Ceramic Art Museum, Crocker Art Museum, and Cincinnati Art Museum.

A playful Dragon rises from this genuine stone base, a sculpture perfect for the coming year of the Dragon by popular contemporary artist Sugitani Keizo. 18 x 15 x 25 cm (7-1/2 x 6 x 10 inches) and is in excellent condition, directly from the artist. The creature floats slightly over the stone base on a copper stud set into the stone. It comes accompanied by a signed certificate, directly from the artist.
Sugitani Keizo was born in Osaka in 1959. In 1982 he graduated the Ceramic Art Institute of the Tekisui Museum of Art. He has selected for a number of group exhibitions including the International Ceramics Competition Mino and the Asahi Art exhibition, where he has been awarded. He has been exhibited at some of Japans top galleries as well as London, Art Miami, Maastricht, New York, Taipei and Shanghai among others.

Pastels color the voluptuous curving petals form this blossom by contemporary female ceramic artist Nakazato Hiroko. According to her: I am strongly attracted to the objects created by nature.
A lush plant that grows day by day, especially from early spring to early summer.
The expansion of form from bud to flower and the beautiful colors that spread inside...
In recent years, I have felt a strong vitality in these things,
Through the medium of ceramics, I strive to express this feeling the possibility.
It is sculpted from a heavy block of clay, the weight surprising given the light, delicate imagery created by her fingers. It is 22 x 25.5 x 23.5 cm (9 x 10 x 9-1/2 inches) and is in excellent condition, directly from the artist and comes with a signed wooden placard.
Hiroko Nakazato was born in Yokohama in 1966. She graduated the Kyoto City University of Arts with an MA in 1992. She has held over 20 solo exhibitions since. She has been featured in the Nihon Kogeiten Japanese Crafts Exhibition, International Ceramics Festival Mino and the Asahi Contemporary Crafts Exhibition among many others. Her work was awarded at the 5th Mashiko Ceramics Competition in 2004. She also garnered acclaim at the 58th Japan Craft Exhibition as well as the 8th Kikuchi Biennale in 2019. In 2021 she was awarded again at the 9th Kikuchi Biennale. Her work is held in the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art (Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art) .

The ultimate in crusty, a radical charred vessel by Kanzaki Shiho enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Iga Hanaire. Two sides are completely blackened and coated in Koge-charring. Opposite the darkness gives way to tombo-no-me (Dragonfly eyes) with thick encrustations around the base, a stream of yellow cascading down one clefted face. It is 21.5 cm (8-1/2 inches) tall and in excellent condition.
(Kanzaki Shiho (1942-2018) preferred firing his kiln for ten days, resulting in the rich textures and heavy ash deposits apparent on his work. He was born in Shigaraki, and was fast tracked into the Kansai University Law Department, but rather the life of a lawyer, after graduation he went with his heart to take up the precarious life of a potter, apprenticing under Mino artist Matsuyama Suketoshi. Later he returned to Shigaraki working there at the research center while developing his own style and methods with the Anagama. He consistently stayed with the personal world of private exhibitions, developing a large following both at home and abroad and his list of exhibitions is impressive. He has been the subject of several documentaries and Television interviews, and is widely published. For more information see, The Fire Artist, a documentary by Canadian Director Claude Gagnon.

An organic white form tinged with dusky pink by Kaneta Masanao enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Hagi Haku-yu Yohen Kurinuki Hanaire. It is 23 x 24 x 25.5 cm (9 x 9-1/2 x 10 inches) and in excellent condition.
Kaneta Masanao likely needs no introduction, certainly one of Hagi’s most well-known and easily identifiable names. Although an eighth-generation potter inheriting an overtly conservative tradition, he has transcended limitations, and was one of the first to begin carrying Hagi into the 21st century. His work evokes a distinct tension between both function and form, and technique and tradition. he has been displayed both nationally and internationally innumerable times. His pieces are in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum and Museum of Modern Art Brooklyn. He has been displayed at the Nihon Dento Kogei Ten and Nihon Togei Ten among many many others.

A fabulous wavering form accentuates the fissured ice-like glaze of celadon master Uraguchi Masayuki enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Seiji Kokusho Mizusashi. The black lacquered lid is like a dark pool in the middle of the flaring body. The sleek shape is very much his own, and the deeply crackled glazes he employs have been developed over a lifetime of experimentation. His success rate with pieces like this does not exceed 30 percent, making them quite rare and difficult to acquire. This is 22.5 cm (9 inches) diameter, 14 cm (5-1/2 inches) tall and in excellent condition.
Uraguchi Masayuki (b. 1964) discovered pottery while attending the Tokyo National University of Fine Art and Music and his world turned when he was introduced to a Song Dynasty Seiji Vase" at the Tokyo National Museum designated a National Treasure during one of his art courses. After graduation he met (and studied under) living National Treasure for celadon Miura Koheiji at the Tokyo University of Art. Inspired by the Southern Song celadons as well as the work of Japanese master ceramists Itaya Hazan and Okabe Mineo, Uraguchi spent years personally researching his own celadon glazes and clay bodies types. He finished his post graduate program in 1989, claiming a prize that same year at the National Traditional Arts and Crafts New Works Exhibition (Nihon Dento Kogei Shinsakuten). The following year he would b awarded at the Nitten National Exhibition. In 1991 he established his kiln in Tochigi prefecture. He has since received innumerable awards, including the Asahi Ceramic Art Exhibition, Japan Ceramic Art Exhibition (Nihon Togeiten) among many others. In 1995 he travelled to China to study first-hand the Song guan and Longquan ceramics. In 2001 he moved his Kiln to Hachigocho, Ibaraki Prefecture

Vibrant red glaze is dribbled randomly across the scored and scarred light glazed body of this magnificent Chawan by Yamada Kazu enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Kaku-yu Oribe Chawan. The form is slightly belted, to allow the bowl to settle comfortably into the palm. The very traditional silhouette however has been paddled and graffiti structures scratched into the surface. Over this has been applied an overall white glaze, with black and red ladled out on top of that. It is 12 x 13 x 8.5 cm (4-3/4 x 5 x 3-1/2 inches) and is in excellent condition. This is a prime example of the artist’s most popular style, and a great opportunity for the collector.
Yamada Kazu was born in Tokoname city in 1954, one of Japans ancient kiln areas, into a line of potters. He would have been influenced early on by his father, Yamada Kenkichi and uncle living National Treasure Yamada Jozan. He graduated the Osaka Art University before moving to Echizen to establish his first kiln. He was propelled to international fame after building an Anagama kiln in Germany in 1988. He has been displayed domestically at the Asahi Togeiten, Nihon Togeiten and Chunichi Kokusai Togeiten as well as a host of private exhibitions in prominent galleries and department stores , and his innovative forms and designs are in high demand.

A polished gypsum sculpture reminiscent of the matte works of Nigoshide ceramics from her home prefecture by Sugano Chi enclosed in a swooden box titled Akerakan and featured in the book Sugano Chii (published 1997). It is 16 x 14.5 x 16 cm (6-1/4 x 4-3/4 x 6 inches) and is in excellent condition.
Sugano Chii was born in Saga Prefecture in 1909, on the Southern Island of Kyushu, and graduated the prefectural Saga Prefectural Ogi Girls School in 1927 before being accepted in the Tokyo Women’s Art School (Mod. Womens Art University) Western Painting Department in 1931. The following year she began working for The Shochiku Movie Studios where she would remain throughout the war years. In 1944 she took a position as art director at the Sansui Schools (mod. Toho Gakuen). In 1949 her work was accepted into the Sculpture Division of the Nika-ten and would first be awarded there in 1955. In 1957 she would be one of 13 people chosen for the Bijutsu Hihyo Art Publication. That same year she held an exhibition in cohorts with photographer Takuya Tsukahara at the swank Ginza: Ichibankan Gallery. In 1969 she becomes a permanent member o the Nikakai. In 1986 "Acceptance III" exhibited at the Spring Nikakai Exhibition is permanently displayed at the National Productivity Bureau NPB Building in Singapore. In 1991 she began production of the “Love and Melancholy” series in the wake of the Gulf War. In 1994 she was awarded for the work “Memories of the Earth” exhibited at the Spring Nikakai.

The playful form of this pottery work by the ever lively Yangaihara Mutsuo seems to be overfull with joy, weeping out from the bottom to form a puddle below. It is enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Kuro Oribe Choko and dated 1992. The vessel is 39 cm (16 inches) tall, 19 x 17 cm (7-1/2 x 7 inches) across the base and in excellent condition. This is a rare opportunity for one of the more greatly collected artists of recent years.
Yanigahara Mutsuo (b.1934) was raised in Seto, and studied in Kyoto along with contemporary Morino Taimei with whom he maintained a lifelong friendship. His work is largely sculptural, and his choice of colors is his reflection on the decadence of Japanese society. A list of exhibitions and awards would be much too long but includes the Japan Ceramics Society Gold prize in 2002. Listed as one of the most influential potters of the 20th century in the Japanese ceramics magazine Honoho Geijutsu, he is held in the Museum of Modern Art, both Tokyo and Kyoto (MOMAT, MOMAK), The National Museum of Art, Osaka, V&A, Great Victoria Art Gallery, Portland and any number of other prominent public and private collections throughout the world. For more see Japanese Studio Crafts, Tradition and the Avant Garde by Rupert Faulkner. According to the V&A his “work is striking for its blend of dynamism, colour and wit. A leading figure among Kyoto artists, Yanagihara has taught at Osaka University of Arts since 1968. Yanagihara's application of brightly coloured abstract motifs to vessel forms with anatomical, sometime sexually explicit features - a combination with which he first experimented in the late 1960s and early 1970s - has been a characteristic of his work for the past fifteen years. As in the case of Morino Taimei, a close friend and exact contemporary at Kyoto City University of Arts in the late 1950s, Yanagihara has been considerably influenced by the experiences he gained during two periods of teaching in the United States in 1966-8 and 1972-4. His use of gold and silver - a wry comment, he has explained, on the decaying values of contemporary society and the corruption of Japan's political system - echoes the extravagant style of certain North American artists.”

A delightful small tea bowl by one of the greatest potters of the 20th century, Kamoda Shoji, enclosed in a wooden box signed by his wife. Brown glaze is draped quietly across the rough dark clay, the contrast between simplicity and texture a pleasure to hold. It is 4 inches (10 cm) Diameter, 2-1/2 inches (6.5 cm) tall and in excellent condition.
Kamoda Shoji is without a doubt one of the most important and influential ceramic artists of the 20th century. Born in Osaka in 1933, he studied initially at the Kyoto Municipal University of Art under to be Living National Treasure Tomimoto Kenkichi, graduating in 1955. While in school he was awarded at the Shinshokai Exhibition (where he would be often exhibited) and his graduating project was purchased by the University Museum. While working a stint at a commercial kiln, he was accepted into the Contemporary Japanese Ceramics Exhibition. In 1958 he took up residence at the Tsukamoto Ceramics Research Kiln in Mashiko, establishing his own kiln there in 1961. That same year he was accepted into the National Traditional Arts and Crafts Exhibition (Nihon Dento Kogeiten) where he would exhibit until 1967. In 1964 he boldly stepped onto the stage with pieces in the Modern Japanese Ceramics Exhibition held at the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto; International Contemporary Ceramics Exhibition held at Tokyo National Museum, and the New Generation of Ceramics Exhibition held at the Goto Museum. He would receive the JCS (Japan Ceramics Society) Award that year, one of the most important prizes for a Japanese potter. In 1966 his work was presented in New York at the First Japan Art Festival, granting him international acclaim to add to his growing domestic reputation and he would receive the JCS Gold Prize that year, cementing his reputation. Thereafter his work was much celebrated in the world of invitational exhibitions and he would receive many awards. In 1969 he moved his kiln, and would again relocate a decade later. He died suddenly at the age of 49 in 1983. His work would be the subject of a multitude of posthumous exhibitions, starting with the Tochigi Prefectural Museum on the third anniversary of his death, and the following year at the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art. His work is held in the National Museums of Modern Art, both in Tokyo and Kyoto, Hiroshima Prefectural Museum of Art, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Art, Iwate Museum of Art, Victoria & Albert Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and Beijing Palace Museum among many others. For more see: Japanese Ceramics Today: Masterworks from the Kikuchi Collection (1983), Japanese Studio Crafts by Rupert Faulkner (1995) or Into the Fold: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics from the Horvitz Collection (2015).