Large Irabo Tea Pot by legendary Takeuchi Shugo sold
We like to offer this large and stunning Tea Pot by famous Takeuchi Shugo, enclosed in the original signed and stamped wooden box.
Like most of the best contemporary potters, Takeuchi Shugo is a true artist and creator, and his work reflects his strength and his dynamism.
This great item is another splendid evidence of the mastery of this artist.
Takeuchi Shugo, born in 1938, is a worldwide acclaimed Mashiko based potter. He has exhibited worldwide, and his works are in major museum collections. He awarded the Tochigi Prefectural Cultural Prize among many many others.
Size: 28cm height (incl.the handle) x 17cm width.
Shipping included.
___________
One of a kind!! Large Shigaraki Vase by Koyama Kiyoko 2500 $
No words to describe this incredible large vase by Koyama Kiyoko,signed on the base and enclosed in the original signed and stamped wooden box.
Kiyoko b.1936 started as a painter who drew designs on pottery. Today, she is considered one of the leading Shigaraki potters both nationally and internationally. Kiyoko was the subject of the feature film Days of Fire (Hibi) - please watch a video on the homepage of Momoyama Gallery - and is the pioneering female wood firing artist in Japan, the potter’s dramatic life and the trajectory of her artistic career.
Kiyoko has a list of shows and prizes too lengthy to go through,but the highlights are, Nihon Dento Kogei Ten (Japanese Traditional Crafts Exhibition), Nihon Togei Ten (Japanese Ceramic Exhibition),as well as being prized at the Asahi Togei Ten (Asahi Ceramics Exhibition),and many international exhibitions.
Her life is the basis of a new film titled "Hi-Bi" (starring Yuko Tanaka and directed by Banmei Takahashi). Please click here: youtube.com/watch?v=ZIBkyM-h378
Hibi turned out to be a fantastic and unique movie. Director Banmei Takahashi did very nice job with this movie, it's touching, and rather special Japanese movie. Hibi tells about mother who does pottery and lives rather simple life, growing her children up. She does remarkable job in pottery, finding a new way to make natural pottery in her own tunnel kiln. Then, her son gets leukemia. And entire family has to fight hard to find a donor who has matching bone marrow. The movie is unique and beautiful story about life, but at the same time, very hard and realistic movie about leukemia. Little a bit eccentric character of Kiyoko, acted by Yuko Tanaka is fantastic as such characters haven't yet seen in Japanese screen since eighties. I was really impressed about Yuko Tanaka's way to perform her difficult role so naturally. She doesn't seem to have to act much. Shunsuke Kubozuka impresses me as much as his brother Yosuke, who did convincing job in movie "Go". Maybe the final message of this movie would be that living and dying exist in this world not as opposite, but as a parallel forms of each other. Even the most perfect form will eventually break down, whether it's piece of art of pottery, or a human life.
In her own words - Kiyoko Koyama
'I dig my clay out of the mountains of Shigaraki and dry the raw clay in the open air for quite a few day. Then I remove the many stones in the clay. knead it , and leave it to mature for a number of years. Although I like to maintain a flavour of Kamakura and Muromachi-period pottery, my forms are always new and original. Firing is carried out in the traditional way, leaving the pieces in the Kiln for about two weeks. For fuel I use large quantities of various woods including pine ,chestnut and oak. I do not add a single drop of glaze. The pots are fired until the last possible moment when they are about to crumble in the heat; this long confrontation with the flames is a battle of strength and willpower.'
(From ’My Natural Glazes ’by Kiyoko Koyama 1. Reference:’ I Love Pottery ’ Kiyoko Koyama ,Kokoku to Bunka(The Lake Country and its Culture)vol.40(1987). Natural glaze :the natural effects of wood-ash settling on the pots during firing).
Material Pottery, Width 17cm x 21.2cm, height 29,6cm, extend/circumference 51cm. No chips or cracks.
___________
Large Mashiko Tsubo by Living National Treasure Shimaoka Tatsuzo 2900 $
Here is a large and brilliant Tsubo (vase) by Master Mashiko Potter and Living National Treasure Shimaoka Tatsuzo enclosed in the original signed and stamped wooden box. It is in mint condition with no chips or cracks.
Shimaoka Tatsuzo (1919-2007) is one of the best-known Japanese potters. The artist studied under another pottery legend, Hamada Shoji, to become one of Mashiko master craftsmen. Shimaoka Tatsuzo became independent in 1953 and after having exposed in renowned venues in Japan, the potter held his first international exhibition in Boston, in 1974. His work can be found in many museums around the world among which are the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of art in New York. In 1996, Shimaoka Tatsuzo became the second Preserver of Important Intangible Cultural Properties of Japan (Living National Treasure) for Mashiko-yaki (Mashiko ware), after Hamada Shoji. He is well known for using the combined Jomon technique of rope marking and traditional Korean technique of white slip applied to the created patterns. Working with rope patterns, Tatsuzo set out to create a style unique to himself, resulting in the piece you see here, which is quintessential Tatsuzo.
Size: 18,6 cm height x 20,2 cm width.
Shipping included
_____
Large and perfect Mashiko Bowl by greatest Shoji Hamada 3995 $
A true Mashiko bowl by greatest Shoji Hamada with a real beautiful glaze, enclosed in its originally signed wood box.
Hamada Shoji (1894-1978) was one of the leading potters of the Japanese Mingei (Folk Craft) movement. He was closely associated both with Yanagi Soetsu (1889-1961), the philosopher-critic on whose theories the movement was founded, and the pioneer English studio potter Bernard Leach (1887-1979), whom he helped establish the Leach Pottery in St Ives, Cornwall, during the early 1920s.
The Mingei movement developed in early twentieth-century Japan as a social and aesthetic crusade. It held ideas in common with the English Arts and Crafts theorists John Ruskin and William Morris about the value of hand-work and the negative effects of industrialisation and mass production. It actively sought to save and revive Japanese folk-craft traditions, which were becoming sidelined due to the forces of modernisation and urbanisation, and was part of a broader cultural movment in which Japan sought to articulate and assert a sense of national identity in the face of burgeoning westernisation.
Mint condition. Aesthetic spur (kiln support) marks on the foot. No chips or cracks.
Size: 11 cm height x 18,5 cm in diameter.
Shipping included.
_____
Massive Shigaraki Vase Tsubo by great Rakusai Takahashi III 650 $
A massive (almost 2 kg) Shigaraki Vase by famous Rakusai Takahashi III, enclosed in its originally signed wood box.
The tsubo displays the landscape of fire color (hi-iro), scorch (koge) and burst rocks (ishihaze).
Rakusai (1900 - 1976) was considered as one of the true masters of Shigaraki and Iga-yaki, along with Naokata and later Michio. He worked toward the revival of Kamakura and Muromachi wares, and came to the world stage when he won international acclaim after being prized at the 1958 Brussels Exposition. He was later named a Shiga-ken Juyo Mukei Bunkazai and is credited as one of the artists that saved Japanese pottery from extinction in the post-war years. He eschewed the National Competitions and was a proponent of the world of private exhibition.
No cracks or repairs.
Size: 7,1'' height x 9,2'' width.
_____
Very large Oni Shino Yohen Tsubo by Tsukigata Nahiko 4800 $
One of a kind and absolutely rare: Very large Oni Shino Yohen Tsubo by Tsukigata Nahiko, enclosed in its originally signed double wooden box. A true masterpiece, 8,3 kg heavy, 28 cm high with a maximum circumference of 88 cm, imagine that.
Tsukigata Nahiko (1923-2006) actually needs no introduction. He was not only an accomplished ceramic artist, but also a musician, painter, calligrapher and sculptor.
Tsukigata was born in Niigata prefecture, he studied at the Waseda University in 1941 when he was summarily drafted into the Army. After the war he attended the Arts course of Nippon Daigaku University and was struck by the works of Living National Treasure Arakawa Toyozo, to whom he apprenticed in the arts of Shino. He took his mentors work to a new level, spectacular and breathtaking. Like all art, his was alive and always evolving. Starting with the replication and research of Momoyama techniques to the culmination of his efforts in Oni-shino, Nahiko has taken Shino beyond all others. The way he took was not easy, for the first 15 years he worked for a ballet school, spent time as a recluse priest at Myoanji temple, and wandered the country playing the shakuhachi.
That time was a period of great change in Japan, starvation was rampant immediately after the war and supporting oneself through the little known art of Shino-yaki was difficult. But Tsukigata persevered, along with Toyozo, Kato Juuemon, Kato Kohei and others, to bring Shino to the forefront of ceramic arts.
Heavily prized domestically and abroad in his lifetime and exhibited in a lot of great museums, his low output and unique quality make his work a must have for collectors.
This spectacular Tsubo is obviously the largest one of Tsukigata's work - comparing to ordinary antique or contemporary Tsubos this is a giant example.
Shipping included.
_____
