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Contemporary wood fired chawan by great artist Nic Collins 500 $ sold

Extraordinary wood fired chawan, Shino with impressed leaves, made by one of the best contemporary ceramics artists, Nic Collins.

After leaving Derby College in 1988 Nic Collins opened his first pottery at Postbridge in the middle of Dartmoor, Devon. It was on the site of a disused gunpowder manufacturing facility and was known as Powdermills Pottery.

He built a 60 cu ft wood fired kiln and produced one-off studio pieces and a range of domestic wares. Nic has now moved to Newton Abbot where he uses a smaller anagama kiln to facilitate multiple firings - some pots are fired up to seven times. He uses local materials for body clay and glazes and is one of the five anagama potters known as the Gnarly Dudes.

No chips or cracks. Perfect condition.

Size: 8,5 cm height x 13 cm in diameter.

Shipping included

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Mint Shino Chawan by greatest Matsuzaki Ken 3600 $

Nothing I can say can convey the rugged beauty locked up of this Shino chawan, made in 2015, signed and enclosed in the original signed wooden box. Matsuzaki Ken is one of the most important potters of our time.

Ken Matsuzaki was born in Tokyo in 1950 and received a degree in Ceramic Art from Tamagawa University School of Fine Arts, Tokyo. After graduating he moved to Mashiko in 1972 to apprentice with Tatsuzo Shimaoka (who himself had moved to Mashiko to study with Shoji Hamada). After a five year apprenticeship, Matsuzaki established his own kiln, Yuushin Gama, down the road from Mr. Shimaoka. Matsuzaki's works have a strong grounding in the Mingei philosophy though his approach is very contemporary, introducing a focus on the Oribe style with yohen, shino, and oribe glazing.

During his college years, Matsuzaki made two important decisions: one was to earn his livelihood as a potter, and the second was to apprentice with Tatsuzo Shimaoka (1919-2007). Shimaoka was the second Living National Treasure of Mashiko, Japan, a town renowned for its pottery. Shoji Hamada (1894-1978), the rst Living National Treasure of Mashiko, established the town’s reputation and was Tatsuzo Shimaoka’s teacher. Matsuzaki could not have better aligned himself to advance in the realm of ceramics, and his ery passion was fueled. After training with Shimaoka for ve years, Matsuzaki began to work independently.

His work was heavily in uenced by the Mingei movement, which focuses on nding beauty in handmade utilitarian objects for daily use. This traditional aesthetic is signi cant in Japanese pottery, but also capable of muting originality for the individual artist.

Works by Matsuzaki have been accepted into the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art (Ohio), The Worcester Museum of Art (Massachusetts), the Tikotin Museum (Israel), the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York).

Here is Matsuzaki Ken in his own words: 'Shino pottery, in its authentic style, has a scarlet color phenomena on its surface, somewhat like rouge brushed over white skin. This is one of the characteristics of Shino ware from the Momoyama period (1573-1603). Creating Shino in a gas kiln naturally limits the possibilities. The gas itself is the limiting factor. But I wanted to see how far I could take the possibility of making Shino pottery in a gas-fired atmosphere. So far, I have been able to make Shino in the Suou (ancient purple red) and Sien (light purple) styles.

For a long time I have wanted to challenge myself and to fire Shino ware in my climbing kiln, fired with wood. My climbing kiln has a very special form. Its first chamber has large fire mouths on both the right and left sides so that wood can be fed into the kiln from either side. It is as if the first chamber exists between these two fire mouths.

I have dreamed of making Shino pottery in the first chamber of this kiln for a long time. For the past seven years I have been firing other types of work in the youhen style and trying to find the appropriate temperature zone in that chamber for Shino ware. After long, long deliberate considerations, I decided to try firing Shino ware in my climbing kiln using all the experiences I had accumulated making the light purple Shino ware in the gas kiln. My climbing kiln is especially designed to make ash-covered youhen (literally meaning changed by the fire/flame) pottery. The Shino work fired in this climbing kiln will definitely be influenced by the way the kiln is fired. Therefore, I wanted to focus on creating my own youhen Shino rather than making typical Shino. In order to do so, I needed to make the most of my climbing kiln.

While I was loading the kiln and trying to place the work in a good place in order to get thatunique Shino, I couldn't help but feel uneasy. I couldn't stop worrying. During the firing I filled both fire mouths with a lot of wood as if to clear away my anxiety.

Anxiety........adding the wood.......anxiety.....adding more wood, this was repeated for seven days. I stopped the firing after confirming that the work near the fire mouths were well covered with ash. The only thing left to do was to wait and hope that the cooling of the first chamber would go well. And in fact, the firing went very well and I was able to finish it with great satisfaction and a refreshed feeling.' (statement found on www.e-yakimono.net/html/matsuzaki-ken-ps.html)

Size: 9 cm height x 11 cm in diameter.

Shipping included

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Hagi Masterpiece Chawan by Seigan Yamane 500 $ sold

Mint Hagi masterpiece chawan by star potter Seigan Yamane. This extraordinary tea bowl is covered by a wonderful color glaze on brown pottery. In my opinion it is the most aesthetic chawan that he made. The seal of the artist is stamped on the bottom.

Seigan Yamane was born in 1952, and started making Hagi ware in 1987. And then, he started his own pottery in 1992 and has ever been awarded a lot of prizes for his great work.

Size: 9,1 cm height x 15 cm in diameter.

Shipping included

Hagi Ware is a type of Japanese pottery most identifiable for its humble forms and use of translucent white glaze. It originated in the early 17th century with the introduction of potters brought back from Japanese invasions of Korea. The local daimyo of the time were very interested in tea ceremony and funded production of this ware.

Potters mix different types of local clay. The most standard result is a pink-orange color, called Korean clay. Wares are formed on the wheel and decorated with translucent glaze made of feldspar and ash.

The signature chip located on the bottom is a local tradition from the Edo period when potters would deliberately mark their wares in order to sell them to merchants instead of presenting them as gifts to the Mori clan.

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Rare colorful Mingei Chawan by Tatsuzo Shimaoka 2500 $ sold

This is surely one of the best chawans of Living National Treasure Tatsuzo Shimaoka. I have rarely seen comparable chawans which such wonderful colors in his art.

It comes with its originall signed and sealed wooden box.

No chips or cracks.

Size: 10,5 cm height x 12 cm in diameter.

Shipping included.

Tatsuzo Shimaoka, Japanese potter who was a master craftsman who was a protégé of Shoji Hamada, a leading proponent of the Mingei philosophy, which held that the quality of a piece of art was interconnected with the spirit with which it was created. Shimaoka’s trademark was a braiding process that he applied to his pottery; the technique was a fusion of Japanese Jomon pottery and Korean decorative arts. In 1996 Shimaoka was designated a Living National Treasure, and in 1999 he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun.

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Mint Tetsu-E Chawan by legendary Shoji Hamada 4500 $ sold

A perfect Tetsu-E chawan of highest quality by greatest Shoji Hamada, enclosed in its originally signed wooden box. The chawan has a beautiful tetsu-e brushwork design.

Hamada Shoji (1894 - 1978) was one of the founding fathers of the Studio Pottery movement, who came over to England with his friend, Bernard Leach, to start the Leach Pottery in St. Ives, Cornwall back in 1920. Like Leach, Hamada did not come from a pottery background but had studied ceramics briefly in Tokyo. Upon his return to Japan, Hamada set up a workshop amongst the rural potters of Mashiko and was based there until his death. In 1955 he was designated as a ‘Living National Treasure' for his involvement and promotion of folk art pottery and the Mingei philosophy.

It is said that the only pots from Hamada’s pottery that he threw and decorated entirely on his own were his teabowls and here we have one such example.

The bowl is well balanced and in mint condition.

Size: 9 cm height x 14 cm in diameter.

Shipping included

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Mint Shino Chawan by legendary Shotaro Hayashi 3995 $

Perfect Shino Chawan by legendary artist Shotaro Hayashi. It is in mint condition and comes with its originally signed and sealed wooden box.

Shotaro Hayashi, born 1947, is one of the biggest names in contemporary Mino ceramics, whose works in Shino, Oribe , Haiyu and Ki-Seto are second to none and many consider him a genius of modern Momoyama inspired ceramics.

He began with a 7 year apprenticeship under his older brother Kotaro, ending when he established his own kiln in the year 1974. His list of exhibitions and awards has been amazing since then, including the Nihon Dento Kogei Ten (National Traditional Arts and Crafts Exhibition), Governors Prize and five times winner of Best of Show at the Asahi Togei Ten (Asahi Ceramics Exhibition), and Best of Show at Gifu Prefectural Exhibition among many many others.

As a member of the prestigious DENTOKOGEIKAI for years, Hayashi has exhibited at major exhibitions worldwide. He has been collected by a great number of public and private institutions as well as private collections around the world. Hayashi has exhibited widely, has won many awards and is published in a wide variety of catalogues and books on ceramics and modern art.

Important note: Shotaro is considered by many to be the top Shino-ware artist of Japan, destined to become one of the next Living National Treasures.

Size: 9,5 cm height x 15,6 cm in diameter.

Shipping included

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Kagura-Gama Chawan by greatest Zen Monk Shimizu Kosho 1600 $ sold

One of a kind! Wonderful Chawan made by the most famous monk of Japan, Shimizu Kosho (Kōshō), with a painting of the kanji 'Hana' (flower) on it. Shimizu Kosho named this unique tea bowl 'HANA-GOKORO' (heart of the flower). It comes with the originally signed and sealed wooden box of this most famous buddhistic monk. This tea bowl is made of clay of the Kagura-Gama-kiln, which is famous for folk craft style pottery. The kiln has a deep relationship with great potters like Shoji Hamada and Kanjiro Kawai.

Shimizu Kosho (清水公焦) was born in the famous castle town of Himeji on January 3rd, 1911 and entered Tōdai-ji-Temple in Nara in 1927. Upon graduation in Buddhist studies from Ryokoku University in 1933 he took up residence at Tenryu-ji for four years to study and practice Zen under the guidance of the Abbot Seki Seisetsu (1877-1945). When he returned to Tōdai-ji, the first steps of his career were closely linked to the temple's teaching institutions. In 1947 he became Director of the school (which was later to become the still existing Tōdai-ji High School). In 1959 he was appointed the Director of the Monks' Academy (Kangakuin) at Tōdai-ji, and in 1963 became Director of Tōdai-ji Girls' School and Tōdai-ji Kindergarten. 1969 marked a turning point in Kōshō's career, when he was appointed as Head of Religious Affairs of the Kegon Tradition. In 1975 the Abbot Kamitsukasa Kaiun (1907-1975) died and Shimizu Kōshō was chosen as his successor, becoming the 207th Abbot of Tōdai-ji. He remained in this position for only a short time, resigning in 1981.

For the remaining nearly twenty years of his life, he was dedicated to the life of an artist. He became a prolific 'eccentric' painter, calligrapher and figurative potter. Unlike most artist-monks, he did not limit himself to painting in only black ink, but enjoyed a full range of colours. His writing and painting styles are what may be described as obsessively impulsive. In 1994, when the Shosha Art and Craft Museum (in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture), was founded, Shimizu Kōshō was made its honorary director because he donated a large number of his artworks. He died on May 6th, 1999.

Size: 3,7'' height x 4,7'' in diameter.

Shipping included

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Wonderful old Shino Chawan by great To-en Miyamura 450 $

Wonderful hand-shaped Shino Chawan by great To-en Miyamura, made around 1935, enclosed in its origninally signed and sealed wooden box. Smooth and very aesthetic Shino glaze and a true wabi-sabi aura.

No chips or cracks. Impressive feeling holding this big tea bowl in your hands.

Size: 8,5 cm height x 11,5 cm in diameter.

Shipping included

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One of a kind: Seto Chawan by legendary Munemaro Ishiguro sold

Here is the next chawan from our collection of items of Human National Treasures: a wonderful Seto chawan by legendary artist Munemaro Ishiguro (1893-1968), enclosed in its originally signed and sealed wooden box.

In 1918, Ishiguro Munemaro set his goal of becoming a ceramist after seeing a spotted tenmoku tea bowl at Tokyo Art Club. On his own, he researched Chinese ceramics of the Tang and Song dynasties, Korean ceramics, and so on, and grounded on abundant experience and skill, he established a richly lyrical and elegant style. In 1955, he was designated a "Living National Treasure" (Preserver of Important Intangible Cultural Properties) for his iron glaze techniques.

Selected Experiences

1968 Award the Third Class Order of the Sacred Treasure

1963 Awarded Purple Ribbon Medal

1955 Selected as a Living National Treasure ( iron glaze pottery )

His work is hold in many museums (for example the Victoria and Albert Museum) and has been auctioned at Sotheby's and Christie's for highest prices.

Size: 7,5 cm height x 13,2 cm in diameter.

Shipping included

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Stunning Kyo Tea Bowl by legendary Nishimura Eiraku Zengoro XVII 1600 $

One of a kind! Stunning Kyo-yaki tea bowl in the style of Ninsei Nonomura with strong and vivid colors - made by legendary Nishimura Eiraku Zengoro XVII. It comes with its originally signed and sealed wooden box and is perfect condition.

The Nishimura/Eiraku family is part of the Senke Jissoku, 千家十職, the 10 families that make tea ware for the Senke school.

Senke jissoku is an honorary title used to refer to the ten occupations, such as lacquerers and carpenters, that have a closely working relationship with tea ceremonies and with the san-Senke (Mushakouji senke, Ura senke and Senke) schools of the tea ceremony. There were a limited number of craftsmen who could create tea ceremony utensils to the liking of the Senke, and due to the roles that they were required to play in formal ceremonies and death anniversaries, they became gradually fixed. The number of crafts used to vary depending on the family branch, but were organized into the 10 crafts of today, in the Meiji period.

The Eiraku family one of the most important an historically significant family of potters in Japan.

Nishimura EIRAKU Zengoro 永樂善五郎 was born in Kyoto in 1944. He is member of the International Academy of Ceramic and Professor at the Kyoto City University of Arts. He is exhibited in important museums and had a lot of solo exhibitions around the world, for example 1967  NIHON DENTO-KOGEI Exposition, 1968  Encourage Prize at NIHON KOGEI-KAI Exposition, 1985   'Two Ceramic Artists of Kyoto', Japan Culture Center, Cologne , Germany, 2000  Memorial one man show of the succession of EIRAKU Zengoro XVII, 2015  Cerebrating 400 Years of Rimpa 'Living Rimpa in Kyoto Today', and 2016  'Successive Generation of EIRAKU and 17th. EIRAKU ZENGORO'.

Size: 7,9 cm height x 12,2 cm in diameter.

Shipping included

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Contemporary Hagi Chawan by famous artist Seigan Yamane 350 $

Mint and large Japanese pottery tea bowl of Hagi Ware, made by one of the most famous and creative potters of Japan, Seigan Yamane. The blue glaze reminds me always of the colors of universe at night. Stunning!

Seigan Yamane was born in 1952, and started making Hagi ware in 1987. He started his own pottery in 1992 and since then he won a lot of prizes for his great work. The special blue on most of his ceramics is called 'Seigan Blue' and was developed in 2002. Not least for that he became very popular.

The seal of the potter is written on the bottom.

Size: 8,7 cm height x 14 cm in diameter.

Free shipping

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