Yearly Archives: 2022

Rosanjin Kitaoji: Shigaraki ware of flower vase

Reply

 

 

 

Rosanjin Kitaoji　北大路 魯山人

1883
Born in Kamigamo Kitaoji, Kyoto.

1907
Began his career as a calligrapher in Tokyo.

1916
Wandered around Korea, China, Shiga, Fukui, and Kanazawa. Returned to Kyoto.
1919 Opened his antique shop in Tokyo.

1921
Began 'Bishoku club' (Gourmet's club) which serves his food with his collections.
1925 Began 'Hoshigaoka Saryo'. (Members-only restaurant)

1928
Built 'Hoshigaoka kiln' in Kamakura for producing dishes used in the restaurant.
His reputation rose as his works exhibited in department stores and the restaurant.

1935
Started focusing on producing ceramics.
1936 Left the management of the restaurant. 

1937
The first exhibition of his new works held at Ginza Kuroda Touen.

1939
The Hoshigaoka kiln was blisk holding about 50 staff around this year. 

1942
Evacuation in Ishikawa prefecture. Produced lacquer ware there.

1954
Held a solo exhibition in New York, invited by Rockefeller Foundation.
Visited U.S. and Europe. 

1955
Declined certification of a living national treasure.

1956
Actively held exhibitions in Tokyo, Kyoto and Nagoya.

1959
Passed away at the age of 77.

Kaiji Tsukamoto : bowl

Reply

This blue-and-white porcelain bowl has an aesthetically pleasing flower pattern in a combination of carvings created by Kaiji Tsukamoto.
While the potter's wheel was still soft, the bowl was decorated with a design by using a spatula, and then shaded with fine lines by scraping with a comb.
On the outside, a sharply carved renben pattern is engraved using the kata-kiri carving technique.

The technique of carving such an uneven pattern on a thin bowl is unrivaled, and can be said to be the essence of Kaiji Tsukamoto, resulting in a tense work.
It is a gem with a limpid and dignified taste.

Ryoji Koie : Oribe bowl , engraved with Ben Shahn's English poem

Reply

In 1989, at the age of 51, Ryoji Koie left his wife and children in Tokoname and moved his studio to Shitara-cho, located at an altitude of 900 meters in the mountains of Okumikawa, Aichi Prefecture.

Koie chose a completely different environment from his previous base in Tokoname on the west coast of the Chita Peninsula, a one-minute walk to the sea and one meter above sea level. It was a place deep in the mountains, surrounded by the deep green of the forest.

What he created in that green-surrounded studio was the [Oribe Series], in which the entire vessel was covered with green glaze.

At that time, Oribe, which was started by Koie, had a strong impact on the ceramic world as well as the [white] series works, and with its influence, potters all over the country started to make works with Oribe glaze all over.

Ryoji Koie felt the power of green in his life in the forest and put the power of its beauty into his works. Mr. Koie's [Oribe Series] was a celebration of the beauty of nature.

At the end of the 1980s, when the full extent of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 was beginning to emerge, Koie had a lot on his mind, and he was actively creating and exhibiting his "Chernobyl Series" of objects.

This Bowl of Oribe is made with a stencil technique. On the mold, Koie carved the English poem "Lucky Dragon" by Ben Shahn (1898~1969).
The inscriptions appear as mirrored characters on the vessel.

The tragic historical facts behind the casual-looking bowls.
Mr. Ryoji Koie said that ceramic works are messages and testimonies for future generations.

 

The following is Ben Shahn's [Lucky Dragon] inscribed on an Oribe bowl.

i AM A FISHERMAN.
AIKICHI KUBOYAMA
BY NAME. ON THE
FIRST OF MARCH
1954 OUR FISHING
BOAT THE LUCKY
DRAGON WANDERED
UNDER AN ATOMIC CLOUD
EIGHTY MILES FROM
BIKINI. I AND MY FRIENDS
WERE BURNED.
WE DID NOT KNOW
WHAT HAPPENED TO US.
ON SEPTEMBER TWENTY
THIRD OF THAT YEAR
I DIED OF ATOMIC BURN.

 

Kazuo Yagi : Tiger figurine

Reply

Kazuo Yagi's artistic activities started as a sculptor and soon became a ceramic sculptor, but he gave up his activities during the war. After the war, he restarted his career as a ceramic artist.

This is a rare work titled "Okimono" with a motif of a tiger stretching its back and glaring at us.
This work is from his heyday, when he was actively producing black pottery objects using the "hand-bending" technique, but he dared to create this work using the "kata" technique that he had developed during his time as a ceramic sculptor.
This work is a manifestation of Kazuo Yagi's modeling ability.

 

Ryoji Koie : Sake cup

Reply

 

Ryoji Koie, who was the most unique figure in the world of contemporary ceramics, was an internationally active potter who held exhibitions in Japan and abroad from the late Showa to the Heisei era.
At the time, he was known as a prolific potter, but in the last ten years of his life, he devoted himself to recuperating from illness and rarely produced ceramics, which surprisingly limited the total number of works he produced during his life.

This is a drinking cup from the "White Series," which is neither white porcelain nor white glaze, and which Koie began producing in the early 1970s and continued to produce until the end of the 1980s.

It is a drinking cup that shows off the work of Ryoji Koie, who was said to be one of the best masters and masters of the potter's wheel in modern times. Since it is a small drinking cup, it is made by skillfully using the tip of the little finger.

What is most surprising about this piece is the construction of the base.
It is common for the base to be carved out, but this piece is made with a "tsuke-kodai" design.
This is the essence of Ryoji Koie's obsession with pottery, which is a time-consuming and labor-intensive method.