Modern Japanese Ceramics Pottery Contemporary

By Appointment is best. You might get lucky just popping by, but a great deal of the month I am out visiting artists or scouring up new items, so days in the gallery are limited.

Important Modern Artist Kawai Kanjiro Henko Vase


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Directory: Vintage Arts: Regional Art: Asian: Pre 1960: Item # 1410650

Please refer to our stock # 1377 when inquiring.
Modern Japanese Ceramics
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23 Murasakino Monzen-cho, Kita-ward Kyoto 603-8216
075-201-3497
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An iconic square bottle by one of the most important Japanese artists, Kawai Kanjiro, enclosed in the original signed wooden box. The fawn spotted white glaze is decorated with Gosu floral patterns in blue and red with a rich iron red at the mouth, the raw clay revealed at the base. It is 12 x 12 x 18 cm tall (roughly 5 x 5 x 7 inches) and in excellent condition dating likely from the height of his career, 1940s-50s.
Kawai Kanjiro was a true artist by nature, and together with Hamada Shoji, set a pattern of study for modern potters. After graduating the Tokyo School of Industrial Design, he came to study in Kyoto, eventually establishing his own kiln on the Gojo-no-Saka (It remains standing today and is a must see for anyone visiting Kyoto). Together with compatriots Hamada Shoji and Bernard Leach (with whom he traveled throughout Asia) established the modern Mingei movement in ceramics, the most influential ceramics movement in the 20th century. His research on glazes (of which he developed thousands over a lifetime of work) remains influential as well. Refusing to be limited to ceramics, Kanjiro also worked in bronze, wood and paint. An interesting final note on this unusual artist, when offered the title of Living National Treasure, an honor bestowed on very few, he declined.