259. ŌIWA Tomoyuki. 1977- . black Bizen-ware drinking cup

 259. ŌIWA Tomoyuki 大岩智之. 1977- . Kuro guinomi 黒ぐい呑   (black [Bizen-ware] drinking cup)

Ōiwa Tomoyuki was born in Kobe, Hyogo prefecture, in 1977, and graduated from the Bizen Ceramic Center in 2004. The following year he became a student of the outsider Kakurezaki Ryūichi 隠崎隆一, with whom he would remain for eight years before going independent. In 2014 he built a half-submerged tunnel kiln (anagama), completing his first firing in 2015. He has since been featured widely and is known for his sake vessels. 

Glazed in dun brown and black. Weight: 158 g (5.6 oz). Height: 5.4 cm (2-1/8 in). Widths: mouth, 5.4 cm (2-1/8 in), widest, 6 cm (2-5/8 in); base, 5 cm (2 in). 

Any given horizontal cross-section of  this is roughly circular. The cup sits on a flat irregular foot ring. Before trimming, the base was probably completely flat. The inside of the base has been gouged out in a rough yin-ying pattern. The foot ring is level, and the cup rests stably on it. This came with a small white sticker with the number 11 on it attached to the base. Above the base the walls rise outward at about a 45-degree angle, to the widest point of the piece, about a centimeter (3/8 in) above the base. From the widest point to the mouth, the walls gradually sloped inward. There are wide, shallow horizontal grooves encircling the cup in this section. The mouth is generally even but has two small dips in it. There are tiny remnants of the three posts used to hold the piece away from the kiln shelves on the black side of the piece. The interior generally mirrors the exterior. The surface of the piece is smooth throughout and has the slight stickiness of a glazed work. 

The bottom, most of the interior, and half of the wall area were glazed in black. The other half of the walls and the lips of the mouth were glazed in a dun brown, which was allowed to drip into the black area of the walls along the horizontal grooves. Where the brown glaze thins out over the black glaze, it turned a light blue color. 

This came in a wooden box, inscribed by the artist in three lines: 黒 /ぐい呑 / sigil (black / small drinking cup //sigil), followed by the artist’s seal stampeed in red. Ōiwa’s sigil is indecipherable but appears to be the characters in his surname. Included in the box were a gray wrapping cloth and a small printed card with the artist’s potted biography. 

Purchased from the Kura Monzen Gallery in Kyoto in September 2024, who purchased it directly from the potter in June 2023 (invoice and shipping documents).

 

258. SUZUKI Gorō, 1941- . Painted Oribe-ware ceramic winter melon sculpture

258. SUZUKI Gorō 鈴木五郎 , 1941-  . E-Oribe Tō Tōgan  絵織部陶冬瓜   (Painted Oribe-ware ceramic winter melon), sculpture, 2003.

 

“Oribe keeps developing. It never stayed in one place. So I create whatever comes to my mind, one after another. I never stop. I feel like I’m playing with clay. The playfulness makes one’s life interesting.”                                                                                                                                                          --Suzuki Goro

Born in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, in 1941, the prolific Suzuki Gorō is known particularly for his Oribe-ware, as well as for Shino and ki-Seto pieces. Stylistically playful, Suzuki’s experiments with color and form result in works both sculptural and functional. His art is experimental and showcases a youthful and quirky approach to Mino and Seto ceramics. He has brought a fresh and innovative perspective to Oribe-ware. His works are held by, among others, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum in New York City, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. 

A visit to a daughter living in Los Angeles inspired this piece and its drawings of buildings and a car. 

White clay. Glazed in Oribe green, cream, and dark brown; one unglazed spot near the base. Weight: 2.3 kg (5.1 lb). Height: 27 cm (10-5/8 in). Width: 18.5 cm (7-1/4 in). 

This is a rough cylinder with a rounded and flattened top and bottom. It sits on a flat base, with a central depression. The character 五 go (the first character’s in Suzuki’s given name) was incised into the base. The body is roughly circular in cross-section, though with many bumps and dents. The widest point is about 7.5 cm (3 in) up from the base. The diameter gradually narrows to the shoulders to about 14 cm (5-1/2 in) some 25 cm (10 in) above the base. The top has a central depression, filled with a “stem” about 5 cm (2 in) long. The surface is smooth to the touch. 

For a piece of this size, it is remarkably light in weight. Suzuki must have trimmed it when it had partially dried until the walls were quite thin. There is no obvious escape hole for the air inside the pot, a necessity for the kiln. The stem has a central hole, but it extends only a short distance inward. Perhaps the vent was filled in after the firing. 

Except for the three oval picture areas, the pot is covered in the Oribe green glaze. This glaze is of varying thicknesses. The direction of the drips implies the piece lay on its side as this glaze was applied, although there is one long prominent vertical drip. The picture areas were covered with the Oribe cream glaze. The oval shapes are reminiscent of the picture areas on highly painted Ming and Qing vases. The pictures are drawn in the Oribe brown glaze. The first shows a boxy car with jagged shapes above it (mountains?).The second has a light bulb beneath a metal shade, with a rotating off-on switch, hanging from an electrical cord. Diagonal lines suggest rays of light. A brown line outlines the edges of this oval. The image is reminiscent of the motif of persimmons suspended by cords from the eaves of a house, a common image on classical Oribe pieces (see item no. 7 for an example). The third oval contains drawings of two skyscrapers with a helicopter. Similar images can be found on other pieces by Suzuki. 

This piece has all the playfulness and whimsy of classical Oribe-ware, with the updated images containing nods to classical styles of decoration. 

This came in a wooden box inscribed by Suzuki in two lines:  絵織部陶冬瓜   E-Oribe Tō Tōgan /  X五 (painted Oribe-ware ceramic winter melon / sigil Go). The sigil is indecipherable. Interestingly, Suzuki did not stamp the box with his seal. The same signature and the lack of a seal are found on online examples of boxes inscribed by Suzuki. 

Purchased in August 2024 from Dai Ichi Arts in New York City, which had it directly from the artist (invoice, shipping documents, postcard from seller, small brochure/catalogue of Suzuki’s works).

 

257. SAKATA Keizō, 1949-2004, Hagi-ware bamboo-shaped vase

257.  SAKATA Keizō 坂田慶造  (十五代 坂田泥華 Sakata Deika XV), 1949-2004. Hagi XXha take hanaire  萩XX破竹花入 (Hagi-ware broken bamboo-shaped vase)

 

The Sakata family is one of the ancient lineages of Hagi-ware potters. Keizō was the son of Sakata Deika XIV (1915-2010). After graduating from university, he studied sculpture and spent some time traveling in the United States before beginning work at the family kiln. This exposure outside the traditional world of Hagi-ware pottery is sometimes cited as setting him apart from other local potters. In 1978, he received an award at the First Exhibition of New Traditional Crafts (Dentō Kōgei Shinsaku Ten). In 1989, he became a member of the Japan Kōgei Association and exhibited with that organization, garnering a number of prizes as well as receiving awards at the Japan Traditional Crafts Exhibition (Dentō Kōgei Ten) and the Grand Prize at the Tanabe Museum Ceramics of Tea Exhibition. He was expected to make great advances as the next Sakata Deika but died in 2004 at the age of 54. He was posthumously named the 15th generation Sakata Deika. A brother is now Sakata Deika XVI. 

Gray clay, visible only on the bottom half of the interior. The color of the glaze is hard to pin down. In sunlight the exterior is a milky coffee color; in artificial light, it acquires a greenish hue. The glaze on the interior is whiter, with a bluish cast in some lights. Only the upper half or so of the interior was glazed. The base and a small patch at the bottom of the back side were left unglazed and show kiln-effect colors in a reddish tan and a dark red. Weight: 4.4 kg (9.7 lb). Height: 33.3 cm (13 in). Width: top. 12 cm (4-3/4 in); widest: 13.5 cm (5-1/4 in); base: 11.5 x 10.5 cm (4-1/2 x 4-1/8 in). 

The vase is shaped to resemble one of the dilapidated bamboo vases that often hang on the walls or pillars of a tea ceremony hut. It sits on a flat, eight-sided base, a rough rectangle with angled corners. The artist’s mark, the character 慶, was incised into the base with shallow lines (on the lower left in the next to last picture). Comparison of the interior depth with the exterior walls shows that the base is about 1.3 cm (1/2 in) thick. The walls rise in irregular vertical slabs from each side of the base. The front (the side with the torn away section and the bamboo leaves) is more rounded than the back. The piece as a whole tilts backward slightly. A deep, rough gouge encircles the piece about 7 cm (2-3/4 in) above the vase. The widest point of the vase occurs at this point. The gouge is meant to mimic the joint between two sections of bamboo. On the front side, just above this horizontal gouge, Sakata made two bamboo-leaf shaped gouges. The clay surrounding these gouges was forced to the side to create jagged lines defining them. No apparent attempt was made to trim away the excess. Another notable feature of the piece is the rough, almost violent tearing away of a section of the front of the pot to suggest a portion of the bamboo wall that was ripped off. The margins of this opening are very rough and irregular. The walls themselves are quite thick, measuring from 2.5 to 3.0 cm (1 to 1-3/16 in) at the top. The clay is so thick that several shallow, vertical fissures opened up on the interior walls while the piece was drying/ The interior is roughly circular in cross-section. The surface is smoothest over the most heavily glazed sections. Elsewhere it is quite bumpy and rough. 

Glazed in a milky coffee color over most of the exterior surfaces. The glaze covers the surface unevenly. Most sections received only a light coating, allowing the clay beneath to show through as darker patches. The glaze is thickest and most uniform over the smoother panels, in the areas with a more textured surface, it is more broken, exposing the clay beneath. On the interior, the glaze is a bluish white, again with many darker streaks showing through. 

This came in a wooden box, inscribed by the artist in two lines:  萩XX破竹花入  / 坂田慶造  Hagi XX ha take hanaire / Sakata Keizō (Hagi-ware broken bamboo-[shaped] vase / Sakata Keizō), followed by Sakata’s seal stamped in red. There are two characters in the line on the right that I cannot read, but from their position, they must modify “bamboo” and probably characterize the design of the vase. Included in the box was a leaflet with a potted biography of the artist. 

Purchased from Kura Monzen Gallery in Kyoto, Japan, July 2024 (invoice, shipping and customs documents).

256. KOGA Kenji, 1945- , Korean-style Karatsu-ware clam-shaped small dishes

256. KOGA Kenji 古賀賢治, 1945- , Chōsen Karatsu hamaguri mukōzuke 朝鮮唐津蛤向付  (Korean-style Karatsu-ware clam-shaped small dishes), set of five

 

Koga was born in 1945 in Fukuoka Prefecture. He came to potting rather later than most, at the age of 29 in 1974. He established his own kiln, the Koken Kama 古賢窯,  in Kita Kyūshū City in 1991. To judge from online pictures of other examples of works, he specializes in table ware. 

A coarse clay, the unglazed portions of the pieces are a light tan, with redder colors within the foot rings. Glazed in black and white, with the foot ring and the surrounding areas left unglazed. Each of the five pieces has different dimensions. Weight: 292 – 358 g (10.4 – 12.7 oz). Length: 15.2 – 15.6 cm (6 – 6-1/4 in). Width: 12.3 – 14.0 cm (4-7/8 – 5-1/2 in). Height: 5.4 -5.6 cm (2-1/8 – 2-1/4 in). 

These were shaped to resemble clam shell halves. Each piece sits on a roughly circular foot ring, again of variable diameters, ranging from 6.3 to 7.5 cm (2-1/2 – 3 in). The foot rings are about a centimeter (3/8 in) high on the outside. The inside of the rings was hollowed out very shallowly. The artist’s sigil was incised within the rings. Above the rings, the walls form two distinct zones. The first rises outward at a shallow angle above the foot ring to about a third of the way up. Above this, the second zone extends outward at a steeper angle in more or less straight lines to the rim. There is a bump on the exterior walls where the two zones meet, especially at the back of each piece. The back sides are flatter. It appears that the pieces were shaped as circular bowls. Koga then slit what would become the back side to the depth of the upper zone and pulled the right-hand side over the left-hand side to create a more vertical wall at the back. At the rear of these slits, he attached two wedges as if they were staples holding the slit shut.  Except in the center of the inside, where the glaze is thickest, the surface is bumpy. 

There were glazed in what is known as “Korean-style” Karatsu-ware. The front portion of the inside and the corresponding outside walls were glazed in black.The back portions of the pieces were then covered in a thin white glaze on both the inside and the outside. Due to the thinness of the glaze, it functioned almost as a luster glaze over most of this area, leading to a glossy, dun brown color on these parts. Where the white glaze pooled at the lower edges of the outside walls and in the back center of the insides, it showed up as white after firing. The outside edges of the white patches where it overlaps the black glaze and the glaze is thinner are blue. The lower portion of the external walls and the foot rings were left unglazed. 

Chōsen Karatsu refers to ware that has been glazed with both an ash glaze with a high iron content (black to amber) and a glaze made with the ashes of rice straw mix with a slip (white), applied separately top/bottom or left/right on the ware. The contrast of white and black glazes is quite striking, and the multihued waterfall effect of white, blue, purple, and yellow where the glazes melt together and flow is a defining characteristic of this style of Karatsu-ware. The color changes on the surface of this ware are unpredictable and reminiscent of natural landscapes. 

Mukōzuke is a sashimi course in a formal kaiseki dinner. 

This came in a wooden box, inscribed by Koga in three lines: 朝鮮唐津蛤向付  Chōsen Karatsu hamaguri mukōzuke  (Korean-style Karatsu-ware clam-shaped small dishes) / 唐津焼古賢窯Karatsuyaki Koken Kama  (Karatsu-ware Koken Kiln) / Koga Kenji 古賀賢治  followed by his seal stamped in red. A short, printed biography was included in the box. 

Robert Mangold, the owner of the Kura Monzen Gallery, had these directly from Koga and dates them to before 2000. 

Puchased from the Kura Monzen Gallery in Kyoto, Japan, in July 2024 (invoice, shipping and customs documents).

 

255. HASHIMOTO Tomonari, 1990- , “untitled” utsuwa

 255. HASHIMOTO Tomonari 橋本知成, 1990- , “untitled” utsuwa  器 (vessel), raku-fired

 

For Hashimoto, see item no. 236. 

Robert Mangold, the owner of the Kura Monzen Gallery, asked Hashimoto to make a few smaller pieces more suitable for shipping than his usual sizable sculptures. Hashimoto responded with a series of small utsuwa, or dishes, like this container. Utsuwa, as applied to pottery, is a general term for cooking and serving dishes. 

Black clay, glazed inside and out, mostly glossy black on the interior and about two-thirds black on the exterior, with other colors in the red and brown range, with a coppery sheen on the red parts, especially on the base. Some unglazed areas on the base and around the bottom of the exterior walls. Weight: 370 g (13 oz). Height: 10 cm (4 in). Diameter: 10.3-11.0 cm (4-1/8 – 4-3/8 in). 

This sits a shallow foot ring, 5.7-6.0 cm (2-1/4 – 2-3/8 in) in diameter. Above the foot ring, the base flares outward at a shallow angle to a height of around one centimeter (3/8 in), where the base meets the walls. The walls rise in a very shallow concave arc to the rim. The walls are quite thin for a piece of this size, a quality apparent in its relatively low weight. The diameter of the walls is highly irregular. An oddity is the vertical line beginning at the lip on one side of the exterior extending downward the length of the wall, across the bottom, and up the opposite side 180 degrees around the cup. On the interior the line is apparent on the bottom but not on the sides. On the exterior walls, the line is very bumpy. Either the piece was made in two identical sections and joined together but without smoothing over the joint or Hashimoto scored the surface in this fashion to suggest that the piece consists of two sections. Either way, the line breaks the piece into two sections and suggests division rather than unity. This otherwise has a smooth finish to the surface. 

This was fired Raku-style and has the characteristic glossy finish of Raku-ware. There are five spots around the circumference at the lower edge of the walls that are unglazed; they appear to be where Hashimoto held the piece with his fingers when he dipped it in the glaze. There are also several unglazed patches on the base. The coppery hues predominate on the glazed portions of the base. 

This came in a wooden box inscribed the artist in two lines: untitled 器 (utsuwa; vessel) / Tomonari, followed by his seal stamped in red. Included with the shipment was a copy of the printed catalogue made for the exhibition of Hashimoto’s works at the Kura Monzen Gallery in 2023. 

Purchased from the Kura Monzen Gallery, Kyoto, Japan, June 2024 (invoice, shipping and customs documents)

254. SEZAKI Sō, 1968- , Bizen-ware squared sake server and cup

254. ISEZAKI Sō 伊勢崎創, 1968- , Bizen kaku shuki 備前角酒器 (Bizen-ware squared sake server and cup)

Isezaki Sō comes from a prominent family of potters in the Bizen tradition (his uncle Isezaki Jun is a Living National Treasure). He is the third son of the important potter Isezaki Mitsuru and was raised alongside the family kiln. At eighteen he apprenticed under Bizen master Yamashita Jōji and was first exhibited the following year. After his twentieth birthday he went to the United States for study. Upon returning to Japan, he won the first of many awards at the Okayama Kenten (Okayama Prefectural Art Exhibition). He then returned to the United States for another year of study. The American influences are apparent in his non-traditional approach to design. He has exhibited and received awards at the Nihon Dentō Kōgei Ten (Traditional Crafts Exhibition), the Tobiten of the Japan Ceramic Art Society, and the Tanabe Museum Modern Forms in Tea Exhibition, among others. For other examples of his work, see his website (SO ISEZAKI). 

Gray clay. Fired unglazed; surface colors in the red, tan, and brown ranges, with red veins of hidasuki 緋襷 (scarlet cords), with areas of vitrification. Server. Weight (without lid and handle): 396 g (14 oz). Height (of ceramic only): 7.2 cm (2-7/8 in). Length (overall): 13.8 cm (5-1/2 in). Width: 7.5 cm (3 in). Cup. Weight: 132 g (4.7 oz). Dimesions of cube: 5 x 5 x 5 cm (2 x 2 x 2 in). 

Both the server and the cup are squared off and angular in shape. The server has a wooden lid and a removable brass handle. The server is a rectangular box, with an attached spout and two semicircles that serve as anchoring points for the handle, one in the upper center of the back side and one at the front of the top side just aft of the spout. The box proper is 6.5 cm (2-5/8 in) high; 9.7 cm (3-7/8 in) long, and 7.5 cm (3 in) wide. The lower edges of the sides are beveled inwards at about a 30-degree angle to form a flat rectangular base, 5.8 x 8.2 cm (2-5/16 x 3-1/4 in), about 0.6 cm (1/4 in) high. The artist’s sigil is incised into the center of the base. The two anchoring points for the handle are 2.5 cm (1 in) wide and 1 cm (3/8 in) high. The spout is a right triangle set flush with the top side of the box and located in the upper center of the front side. It is 3.1 cm (1-1/4 in) high, 2.7 cm (1-1/8 in) long, and 1.5 cm (5/8 in) wide. The pouring hole is a rectangle. The opening on the top of the box is another rectangle, located at the rear of the piece, 6.6 x 4.8 cm (2-5/8 x 1-7/8 in) in size. The lid is made of a fine-grained wood, 7.4 cm (2-15/16 in) square. The underside of the lid has a protruding rectangular piece slightly smaller than the hole in the top of the box that serves to anchor the lid on the box. The surface texture if the piece is slightly rough, like a fine-grained sandpaper. 

The cup is a rough cube, with irregular top edges. The bottom edges of the sides are beveled inwards at about a 45-degree angle. The cup sits on a flat base, roughly 4.2 cm (1-5/8 in) square. The center of the base is a shallow, squarish depression of irregular depth (at most one mm deep). The artist’s sigil is incised in this area of the base. The walls of the cup are covered with a series of very shallow striations, angling toward the left. The texture of the cup ranges from very smooth in the areas covered by vitrified ash glazing to slightly rough in the uncovered portions.

These were fired unglazed. Both pieces show the red hidasuki veins, produced by the interaction between rice straw and the Bizen clay. These are found on the bottom of the server and the bottom and sides of the cup. The bottoms of both pieces are otherwise largely the natural color of the clay. On the sides, kiln effects left colors in the tan, reddish brown, and dark brown ranges. On the server, the back side and the two long sides have large areas of vitrification from natural ash glazing. The sides of the cup are mostly covered with vitrified ash glazing. In some places this layer is quite heavy and thick. 

This came in a well-constructed, two-chamber box. The front of the box was inscribed by Isesaki in three lines: 備前 / 角酒器 / 創  Bizen / kaku shuki / Sō (Bizen-ware / square sake set / Sō), followed by the artist’s seal in red. Included in the box were a small printed biography and two dark blue wrapping cloths. 

Purchased from the Kura Monzen Gallery in Kyoto, Japan, in June 2024 (invoice, shipping and customs documents).