Catalog: Artists (710)

A fantastic sculptural Bizen vase by Ajiki Hiro (b. 1948) enclosed in the original signed wooden box dating circa 1995. The vase is roughly 14 inches (35 cm) tall and very heavy, the entire piece carved and cored from a solid block of clay. Hiro is an artist versed in many of Japans ceramic traditions. He fires Shino, Oribe, Seto, Raku, Bizen and Hagi styles as well as styles all his own. His daring Bizen forms have been compared to those of Kakurezaki Ryuichi, and in fact the two often collaborate and this was likely fired in that potters kiln. He has been displayed nationally at the Nihon Dento Kogei Ten (Japanese Traditional Crafts Exhibition) and received grand prize at the Tanabe Museum's Contemporary Tea Forms exhibition among many others. He lives and pots in Shimane when not out traveling Japan or the world.

Splendid Keshiki, it is difficult to describe this stunning square platter by Bizen master Kakurezaki Ryuichi (b. 1950) which comes enclosed in the original signed wooden box. The massive dish is torn and scraped from a single thick slab of clay. Spattered with natural ash glaze, it is a true masterpiece by this most sought after artist. The piece is 16-1/2 inches (42 cm) square and in excellent condition. It is likely that Ryuichi needs no introduction, one of the most well known of Bizen potters, he is interestingly originally not from Bizen but far off Nagasaki, which seems to have gifted him with the ability to see the clays potential beyond conventional form. He graduated the Osaka University of Fine Arts, then enjoyed a long apprenticeship under Bizen Living National Treasure Isezaki Jun before opening his own kiln in 1986. Combining traditional technique with modern architectural form, He was recipient of the Japan Ceramics Society Award, Grand Prize at the Fifth Contemporary Tea Ceremony Utensils Exhibition, Tanabe Museum and has a list of public and private exhibitions which go beyond this brief add, including a showing in New York this year. His works are held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum of London, National Ceramic Museum of France and the Tanabe Museum among others. In preference to the wishes of this artist we are not listing the pice online.

Each uniquely carved row of frets on this large textured vase is a variegated shade of raw clay by Mihara Ken enclosed in the original signed wooden box. The vase is 10 inches (25.5 cm) tall, 8-1/2 by 5-1/2 inches (22 x 14.5 cm) and dates circa 1994. Ken was born in Shimane prefecture in 1958, and apprenticed under Funaki Kenji at the age of 23. He has been exhibited and or prized at the All Japan Ceramic Exhibition (Nihon Togei Ten), Asahi Ceramic Exhibition, the National Traditional Crafts Exhibition (Nihon Dento Kogei Ten) as well as the Tanabe Museum Chanoyu no Zokei Ten (Modern tea forms Sculpture Exhibition). He has displayed in both Europe and America and is held in the permanent collection of the Tanabe Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art among others.

An unusual brilliantly colored fresh water jar for the tea ceremony by Living National Treasure Tokuda Masahiko (Yasokichi III) enclosed in the original signed wooden box. It ocmes with the original black lacquered lid. It is 14cm (5-1/2 inches) diameter 20.5cm(8 inches) tall and in perfect condition. There are chips to the lacquer on the handle of the lid, which are currently being professionally repaired.
Tokuda Yasokichi III (Masahiko, 1933-2009) was born the first son of Tokuda Yasokichi II who had been adopted as a teenager into the Tokuda family. Masahiko graduated from the Kanazawa school of arts, and took up apprenticeship under his grandfather and father Yasokichi I & II. Well versed in orthodox Kutani design, he broke with tradition developing his own unique style titled Saiyu in the 1970s. By broadening his spectrum with this new style of Kutani ware he garnered considerable attention. In 1986, he was named a Bearer of Important Intangible Cultural Assets by Ishikawa Prefecture (local version of Living National Treasure) and a decade later was designated Living National Treasure in 1997 for his supremacy in the use of Kutani glazes. Yasokichi III, His works are held by the Polk Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, The British Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Smithsonian, the Indianapolis Museum of Art and Kanazawa Contemporary Museum of Art among many others.

A bowl deeply impressed with Jomon rope designs by Living National Treasure Shimaoka Tasuzo enclosed in the original signed wooden box. It is 7.5 (3 inches) tall, 13.5 cm (5-1/4 inches) diameter.
Shimaoka Tatsuzo (1919-2007) was born in Tokyo and enrolled in the Tokyo Kogei Daigaku Ceramics division in 1939. The following year he would meet Mashiko Mingei potter Hamada Shoji, and the course of his life was thought set, graduating in 1941. However he was drafted in 1942, and sent to Burma where he would remain until repatriation after the cessation of hostilities. In 1946 Tatsuzo apprenticed under Hamada who encouraged him to find his own voice, which he did when in 1950 took part in research into ancient Jomon potteries with Shirasaki Shunji, which would have a profound influence on his style. Working with Jomon rope patterns, Tatsuzo set out to create a style unique to himself, establishing his own kiln in 1954. Widely exhibited, awarded and influential in his lifetime, he received the Japan Ceramic Society Gold award in 1994, one of the highest honors for a Japanese ceramic artist, and was designated a Living National Treasure (Juyo Mukei Bunkazai or Ningenkokuho) in 1996 culminating with receiving the Order of the Rising Sun in 1999.

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”.

An early vase by sculptural legend Yanagihara Mutsuo enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Heki-yu Tetsu-e Kabin. Hekiyu is a glaze made of copper and cobalt, which when fired takes on the color of Lapiz. In this case the Lapiz blue pours down over a tapering base of raw earth decorated with spiraling blades in iron glaze. It is 23.5cm (9 inches) diameter 27.5 cm (11 inches) tall and in excellent condition.
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.”

An elegant basin by Fukami Sueharu enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Seihakuji Sanso Hachi. It is 21 cm (8-1/4 inches) diameter, 8.5 cm (3-1/4 inches) tall and in excellent condition. Fukami Sueharu is synonymous with seihakuji celadon. Born in Kyoto in 1947, he graduated the Kyoto Ceramics Research School in 1965. It was in 1981 that he was first recognized followed by grand prize at the Chunichi International Ceramics Exhibition the following year. In ’84 he would be awarded at the Nitten National Art Exhibition, and in ’85 received grand prize at the Faenza International Ceramic Exhibition, Italy. He would receive the prestigious JCS award in 1992 and the Order of Cultural Merit for Kyoto soon thereafter. He has been displayed at the Nitten, Nihon Togei Ten (National Japanese Ceramic Exhibition) Chunichi Kokusai Togeiten, and Nihon Gendai Kogei Ten (National Japanese Modern Crafts Exhibition) among many others. In 2011 he was exhibited in the Clark Center, California, and was one of a very few potters to receive the important JCS Gold Award in 2012. His work is held in the National Museums of Modern Art in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, an astounding fact for a living artist. Also Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Ibaraki Ceramic Art Museum, Musée Tomo, Museum of Modern Ceramic Art in Gifu, Shiga Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art among other in Japan, and overseas The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Freer/Galleries at the Smithsonian, Yale University Art Gallery, Harvard Art Museum, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Art Institute of Chicago, Ackland Art Museum, Portland Art Museum, Saint Louis Art Museum, New Orleans Museum of Art, Everson Museum of Art, Spencer Museum of Art, National Gallery of Australia, The British Museum, The V&A, Sevres Musée national de céramique, Faenze Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, Museum of contemporary Art, Belgrade and Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires among many others. For more information on this artist a quick web-search, or a look at the article highlighting his life in the March 2005 edition of Orientations Magazine will be enlightening.

Every facet is unique on this natural torn shape by Kishimoto Kennin enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Iga Hanaike ‘Honoka’ or Fire Flower. It is much like a flower in clay, rising up from the bulb, the flowers placed into it the extension of the stalk. It is 32.5 cm (12-3/4 inches) tall and in excellent condition.
Kishimoto Kennin has been working with clay since the 1950s, devouring styles along the way. Shino, Seto, Oribe, Iga and Celadon, all very different approaches which he masters one at a time, extending his unique view of the arts to new realms, and moving on to the next challenge when his appetite and personal genius has been satiated. He was exhibited and prized at the National Japanese Crafts Exhibition (Nihon Dento Kogei Ten), National Ceramics Exhibition (Nihon Togei Ten), Chunichi International Ceramics Exhibition (Chunichi Kokusai Togei Ten) and Asahi Togei Ten among others, and is held in several important international collections. His Iga work is particularly remembered.

A complete set of the twelve animals of the zodiac by Miyashita Zenji, each enclosed in the original signed wooden box retaining the original Shifuku and Shiori. Sizes vary from 8 up to 16 cm (3 to 6 inches) and all are in excellent condition.
Miyashita Zenji (1939-2012) was born into the family of potter Miyashita Zenju, and graduated the Kyoto Municipal University of Art under Kiyomizu Kyubei and Kusube Yaichi. Starting with the most difficult, he worked from Celadon, which relies on shape and extreme control of firing. He began exhibiting in the annual Nitten exhibitions in 1964, eventually winning eighteen prizes. According to the Sackler, which holds 6 works by him, “ His mature work was a modern embodiment of a classic Kyoto mode associated with the Heian period (794–1185). He applied delicate layers of color—reminiscent of multilayered court robes or decorated papers made for inscribing poetry—using not over-glaze enamels or glazes but clay itself, dyed with mineral pigments”. He is held in the aforementioned Freer-Sackler, the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, and the Brooklyn Museum the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and of course the National Museums of Modern Art both in Kyoto and Tokyo among a host of others.

A very rare set of 5 sencha tea cups by porcelain legend Fukami Sueharu enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Kiji Kumidashi Wan (yellow Celadon Tea Cups). Each cup is 9 cm (3-1/2 inches) diameter, 6 cm (2-1/2 inches) tall and in excellent condition. There is a stain in the box between the title and signature.
Fukami Sueharu is synonymous with seihakuji celadon. Born in Kyoto in 1947, he graduated the Kyoto Ceramics Research School in 1965. It was in 1981 that he was first recognized followed by grand prize at the Chunichi International Ceramics Exhibition the following year. In ’84 he would be awarded at the Nitten National Art Exhibition, and in ’85 received grand prize at the Faenza International Ceramic Exhibition, Italy. He would receive the prestigious JCS award in 1992 and the Order of Cultural Merit for Kyoto soon thereafter. He has been displayed at the Nitten, Nihon Togei Ten (National Japanese Ceramic Exhibition) Chunichi Kokusai Togeiten, and Nihon Gendai Kogei Ten (National Japanese Modern Crafts Exhibition) among many others. In 2011 he was exhibited in the Clark Center, California, and was one of a very few potters to receive the important JCS Gold Award in 2012. His work is held in the National Museums of Modern Art in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, an astounding fact for a living artist. Also Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Ibaraki Ceramic Art Museum, Musée Tomo, Museum of Modern Ceramic Art in Gifu, Shiga Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art among other in Japan, and overseas The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Freer/Galleries at the Smithsonian, Yale University Art Gallery, Harvard Art Museum, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Art Institute of Chicago, Ackland Art Museum, Portland Art Museum, Saint Louis Art Museum, New Orleans Museum of Art, Everson Museum of Art, Spencer Museum of Art, National Gallery of Australia, The British Museum, The V&A, Sevres Musée national de céramique, Faenze Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, Museum of contemporary Art, Belgrade and Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires among many others. For more information on this artist a quick web-search, or a look at the article highlighting his life in the March 2005 edition of Orientations Magazine will be enlightening.

A crumpled news print from the New York Times dated 82-5 by pioneering Ceramic Sculpture Icon Mishima Kimiyo enclosed in the original signed wooden box. It is 25 x 14 x 13.5 cm (10 x 5-1/2 x 5-1/2 inches) and is in excellent condition.
Mishima Kimiyo was born in Osaka in 1932, and began her artistic career as a painter in the early 1960s. She started making collages with newspapers, discarded waste papers from printing companies, and old movie posters. As the materials she used for her collages accumulated in her studio, she came upon the idea to make her iconic newspaper-shaped ceramics. She said, "I thought that if I changed the newspaper's paper into ceramics, it might express a sense of impending crisis or instability regarding 'information'." She was awarded the Ja@an Ceramics Society Gold Award in 2021, testament to her contributions and to the progressive nature of the JCS. The list of institutions holding her work is formidable and includes the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Tokyo, Musee Cernoschi, Paris, the Museum of Faenza in Italy, the Ariana Museum in Geneve, the Keramion Museum for Contemporary Ceramic Art in Germany, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Everson Museum of Art in New York, the Ohara Museum of Art, Okayama, the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, the Gifu Prefectural Contemporary Ceramic Museum of Art and Benesse Art Site on Naoshima among many others.

Flame shapes fan up on the sides of this trumpeting bottle by Funaki Kenji enclosed in the original signed wooden box. It is 6-1/2 x 7-1/2 x 9-1/2 inches (16.5 x 19 x 24 cm) and is in fine condition. Funaki Kenji (b. 1927) was born the son of potter Funaki Michitada (1900-1963) in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture. Michitada had been a follower of the Mingei movement closely associated with its founders Kanjiro, Shoji and Leach. Kenji trained under his father in both the traditional styles of Fujina and the slipware styles introduced by Leach and associates and also worked in the Mingei style under Hamada Shoji. Work by him is held in the Mingei-kan Japan Folk-craft Museum of Tokyo, Freer-Sackler of the Smithsonian, the Brooklyn Museum and the V&A in London among many others. For more see “The Ceramic Art of Japan” by H. Munsterberg.

Iron glaze with hakeme brushed slip design by Koie Ryoji enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled simply Chawan. There is something of a midcentury abstract expressionist painting to it, with minimal coloration, it stands out in its minimalism and simplicity with a quiet elegance. The brush stroke is consistent both inside and out, not allowing a boundary at the rim. It is 14 cm (5-1/2 inches) diameter, 8.5 cm (3-1/4 inches) tall and in excellent condition.
Koie Ryoji (1938-2020)) was born in Tokoname and graduated the Tokoname industrial school before moving on to work at a tile factory in 1957, where he would lose two fingers in an industrial accident. Faced with this handicap, he entered the City Ceramics Research Facility in 1962 where he furthered his studies and his unique style began to coagulate. In 1966 he established his own studio. By the early 70s his work was garnering attention overseas and he has since been largely displayed and prizedculminating in a lifetime with the Japan Ceramic Society Gold Award in 2008, the most prestigious of pottery prizes in Japan. Work by him is held in the collections of the National Museums of Modern Art in both Tokyo and Kyoto, Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Idemitsu Museum, The Museum of Fine Art in Gifu, Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Seoul Museum of Art in Korea, and the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia among many other public and private collections.

Orange peel textured black Chawan by Samukawa Seiho I (Yoshikazu 1899-1975) enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Kishu Yaki Nacchi-guro Chawan. It is 5-1/4 inches (13.5 cm) diameter, 3-1/2 inches (9 cm) tall and in excellent condition.
Born in Osaka in 1900 and raised in Kyoto, Samukawa Seiho I began his apprenticeship in tea ware under Sawada Muneyama in 1919. With a letter of introduction he entered the Aichi Prefectural Ceramics Research Facility in 1927. In 1935 he moved to the Buddhist enclave of Koyasan in Wakayama where he established his first kiln. He succeeded with the development of this Nacchi-guro glaze in 1956, and it became one of the signature features of his work. In 1962, his tea bowl was presented to the Emperor. Five years later he would move, re-establishing his kiln in Shirahama-cho. He was awarded the Bunka Rodosho Cultural Prize in 1970, and in 1972 the Wakayama Order of Cultural Merit.

Enigmatic lines score the martian landscape of this large slab platter by innovative Japanese artist Teramoto Mamoru enclosed in the original signed wooden box. The slab measures 53.5 x 16.5 x 5 cm (21 x 6-1/2 x 2 inches) and is in perfect condition. The box itself is a testament toteh value placed on it by the artist, double the thickness of a usual box and of a fine grade of kiri. The moonscape style is haunting, and Mamoru is a must for any modern Japanese ceramic collection.
Mamoru (1949-present) born in Kanagawa prefecture, initially worked at the Kasama Kobayashi Research Facility after graduating the Tokyo Craft Design Institute. Later he apprenticed under the instruction of both Matsumoto Saichi of Kutani, and Miura Isamu. He established his own kiln in 1976 in Kasama. His works have been displayed and prized at the Nihon Dento Kogeiten (National Traditional Crafts Exhibtion), Nihon Togei Ten (National Ceramics Exhibition) as well as the Shinsaku Ten (New Crafts Exhibition). For more information on this artist see the Catalog from the Nancy Fitz-Gerald Collection.

A book of Yagi Kazuo works (number 203 of 800) dated 1969 with the cover inlaid with a ceramic work signed and dated Feb. 1967. Dozens of photographs of his work dating from the height of his fame as an avante Garde sculptor fill this 100 page book titled Simply “Yagi Kazuo”. The book comes in the original cover which is held inside a cardboard sleeve. The ends of the cover not encased in cardboard have yellowed some with age, but this does not affect the book within.

A humble crackled white bowl by Koie Ryoji enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled simply Chawan. Inside drops of spilled ink and a bit of blank canvas (raw earth) like a minimalist painting from the 1950s. It is 14.5 cm (5-5/8 inches) diameter, 8 cm (3-1/4 inches) tall and in excellent condition.
Koie Ryoji (1938-2020)) was born in Tokoname and graduated the Tokoname industrial school before moving on to work at a tile factory in 1957, where he would lose two fingers in an industrial accident. Faced with this handicap, he entered the City Ceramics Research Facility in 1962 where he furthered his studies and his unique style began to coagulate. In 1966 he established his own studio. By the early 70s his work was garnering attention overseas and he has since been largely displayed and prized culminating in a lifetime with the Japan Ceramic Society Gold Award in 2008, the most prestigious of pottery prizes in Japan. Work by him is held in the collections of the National Museums of Modern Art in both Tokyo and Kyoto, Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Idemitsu Museum, The Museum of Fine Art in Gifu, Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Seoul Museum of Art in Korea, and the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia among many other public and private collections.