Page 118 - Bonhams Japanese Works of Art September 2015 New York

3224 3223

116 | BONHAMS 3223
A LARGE STUDIO PORCELAIN BOWL (HACHI)
By Tokuda Yasokichi III (1933-2009)
The interior with an underglaze basket-work pattern of diminishing
scale visible below a suffusion of Kutani glazes of turquoise blue,
yellow, emerald green and dark blue color, the exterior glazed a
dark blue with a subtle sunburst pattern silhouetted against a wide
turquoise glazed band at the rim, the base signed Kutani Masahiko
With an inscribed wood storage box
18in (46cm) diameter
$2,000 - 3,000

Tokuda Yasokichi III was designated a Living National Treasure in
1997 for his mastery of the innovative saiyu glaze technique, based
on traditional Kutani colored glaze enamels as handed down from his
grandfather and father, Tokuda Yasokichi I (1873–1956) and Tokuda
Yasokichi II (1907–1997).

3224
A STONEWARE BRUSHPOT
By Kazuo Yagi (1918-1979)
The brown cylindrical vessel decorated overall with an impressed
geometric dot pattern highlighted with Korean Buncheong-inspired
white slip inlay, the free-form rim brushed with white slip, the potter’s
mark on the underside
5 1/8in (13cm) high
$4,000 - 5,000

Provenance
Purchased at Yodo Gallery, Osaka and presented to the current
owner’s father on behalf of business interests in Japan, 1960s.

Yagi Kazuō (1918-1979) was the eldest son of Kyoto ceramist Yagi
Issō (1894-1973). He graduated from the sculpture department of the
Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts and went on to become
a student at the Ceramic Research Institute in Kyoto. In 1948 he
co-founded Sōdeisha, an avant-garde ceramic group that included
Yamada Hikaru (1924-2001) and Suzuki Osamu (1926-2001) as its
leaders, with the goal of producing novel work that did not emulate
ceramics of the past. With an emphasis on the sculptural as opposed
to the functional, many of the works produced were slab-built
geometric structures and biomorphic forms.