Page 54 - Beyond Compare Christie's Hong Kong RU WARE .pdf

BEYOND COMPARE: A Thousand Years of the Literati Aesthetic

The Provenance

This Ru ware bowl is accompanied by an old wooden box, inscribed in ink with
“Seiji chawan” (celadon tea bowl) (fig. 2). The box suggests that it has been in a
Japanese collection for a long time, but no further information is stated on the box.

The bowl previously belonged to Mr. Yuzura Sato (1917-1996) (fig. 3). We
were informed by Mr. Yoshiro Kudo, doctor and ceramics researcher who met
Mr. Sato in Kurume, that he graduated from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
with a degree in Spanish, and became a faculty member of Kyushu University
teaching French. Mr. Kudo was a medical student at Kurume University and made
coincidentally Mr. Sato’s acquaintance in an antique shop Mr. Sato purchased the
bowl from Kusaba Antiques in Kurume in 1954.
fig. 2 Cover of Japanese wood box accompanying the
present lot
Mr. Kudo came by the museum after the Beauty of Song Ceramics exhibition and ॱ̣ 㢍ᕴሠި̃ᑽᕴᕱ↤↤⯯
gave a detailed account of how the Ru bowl was acquired by Mr. Sato. Mr. Sato
returned the bowl to Kusaba Antiques at one point, after showing the celadon
bowl to Mr. Kudo. However, at Mr. Kudo’s continued enthusiasm and urging,
Mr. Sato eventually bought the bowl back, at the time already repaired with
gold lacquer. He treasured the bowl dearly until his late years, and did not sell
it even when he had to raise funds for his studies in the University of Rennes in
France. After returning from France, he taught French as a professor at Hiroshima
University.
Mr. Kudo once mentioned to Junkichi Mayuyama of Mayuyama Ryusendo, a
notable Chinese antiques art dealer in Kyobashi, Tokyo, that Mr Sato owned a
beautiful celadan bowl. Mayuyama travelled to Hiroshima to examine the bowl
and offered to buy it, but the offer was declined. Afterwards, Mr. Sato moved to
Tsukuba University, and after reaching retirement age for National Universities,
he taught at Kobe Womens’ College.
Features of the Ru ware bowl

How can one determine if a celadon bowl of just 10.2 cm in diameter and 5.2 cm
in height is an heirloom piece? Its features, such as its remarkable sky-blue colour
and beautiful lustrous glaze surface, completely set it apart from excavated examples.
The excavated pieces rarely possess this graceful sky blue colour, and while it has
been restored, all original fragments are present, so we can reasonably deduce that it
was initially in pristine condition. From its complete form and beautiful glaze it is
highly unlikely that this bowl would have been a piece to be disposed of.

(Translated into English from the original text in Japanese, and abridged. A full
version is available online)

52 ʔɭ { ҂˾ߕኪɓɷϋ