A Shino chawan, by Kaneshige Tôyô (1896-1967). Nagoya. Mid-20th century
With a wide irregular foot ring and a straight body, covered by a thick and porous white Shino glaze on one side a delicate branch in brown. Original wooden box, the lid with an inscription reading Shino Chawan Tôkurô gama … … (made in Tôkurô’s kiln), signed Tôyô tsukuru and sealed Kaneshige. Purple silk shifuku.
Diameter 11 cm
Kaneshige Tôyô (1896-1967) was born into a family of potters in Imbe, Bizen, Okayama prefecture. In the 1930s he studied the various aspects of Bizen ceramics intensively, the ash glaze and the hidasuki technique. He was a member of what is known as the "Momoyama revival movement" of the 1930s and is credited with having rediscovered the techniques used to produce the wabi teawares. He was in contact with many other potters, visited their kilns and also produced Shino and Karatsu ware. He was deemed a Living National Treasure in 1956 for his work in the Bizen-style ceramic. The present chawan is a good example how Japanese potters visited each other and tried out the other potter's glazes. Kaneshige Tôyô and Katô Tôkurô knew each other since 1941.
Provenance
Collection Vollmer-Bergmann, Berlin
Literature
Ill. in: Gudrun Schmidt-Esters (ed.), Momoyama-Keramik und ihr Einfluss auf die Gegenwart, exhibition catalogue, Stiftung Keramion, Frechen 2011, no. 176
Exhibitions
Momoyama-Keramik und ihr Einfluss auf die Gegenwart, Exhibition, Stiftung Keramion, Frechen, 22.5.-11.9.2011