Who taught them

In the last piece I wrote about the cup itself — the foot cut so the fingers find it, the rim thinned where the lip goes. This time I want to write about the people who cut those feet.

Five of them are here. What links them is not a style. It is the question of who taught them, and what they did afterwards.

The five years she spent alone

In 1964 Ono Hakuko saw work by Kato Hajime, a Living National Treasure, done in a technique called yuri kinsai — gold laid under the glaze. She was not his student. Nobody taught it to her.

She went home and worked it out herself. It took five years. In 1969 a piece finally passed into the Japan Kogei Association’s exhibition, and in 1992 Saga Prefecture designated her a holder of Important Intangible Cultural Property for the technique she had taught herself.

She grew up in her father’s workshop — he founded the Kozan kiln in Ureshino. She died there in 1996. Only a handful of potters in Japan work in yuri kinsai. The gold on this cup is laid by hand, under the glaze, and the glaze is fired over it.

Ono Hakuko (1925–1996), yuri kinsai. Mouth 6.4 cm. Signed paulownia box. €178

One year

Tamura Koichi studied under Tomimoto Kenkichi, worked in Kyoto designing ceramics for export, then went back to Sano, in Tochigi, and built his own kiln. He painted in iron glaze — tetsue. He took the Gold Prize at Istanbul in 1967 and taught at Tokyo University of the Arts.

In 1986 he was made a Living National Treasure for tetsue. He was the first person designated in that category.

He died the following year.

This is a set of two — the flask and the cup together.

Tamura Koichi (1918–1987), tetsue. Tokkuri and guinomi. €368

And his son

Tamura Ryoichi is his eldest son. His cup is here too, in its own signed box.

I did not set out to have both. They came to me separately. When I put them next to each other I decided to keep them that way, and I am telling you rather than quietly splitting them up.

Tamura Ryoichi, with signed tomobako. €188

He goes and gets the clay

Masahiko Imanishi trained in Kyoto and lived as an apprentice in his teacher’s house. In 2000 he went home to Tamba — one of the Six Ancient Kilns — and started on his own in the Tachikui district.

He digs his own clay out of the mountain. He fires in a jagama, a snake kiln, with wood.

This cup is hikidashiguro — pulled black. The name says what happens: the piece is taken out of the fire while it is still glowing.

Masahiko Imanishi (b. 1971), kuro-tamba, hikidashiguro. €218

He waited

Ito Hokuto went to Tokyo University of the Arts to study crafts and was pulled toward ceramics by his professor’s colour work. The professor was Fujimoto Yoshimichi, a Living National Treasure. After graduating, Ito went to live in his house as an uchi-deshi — a live-in disciple.

He built his own kiln only after his master died.

He works now in a technique of his own, carved glaze with polychrome enamel and gold and silver. The Imperial Household Agency bought one of his pieces from the 66th Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition. This one has a fish on it, and comes with the box he signed and a booklet.

Ito Hokuto (b. 1961). Mouth 6.5 cm. Signed box and booklet. €298

Each of these is one piece. When it goes, it is gone, and I cannot order another.

Kei — Kura Finds