GALLERY

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.