Contemporary Artists’ Tea Bowl Feature
I visited the “Contemporary Artists’ Tea Bowl Feature” held at Nihombashi Mitsukoshi.
I had just one goal: to get my hands on a work by Shogo Ikeda. He is an artist I have been paying attention to for some time, and his pieces are notoriously hard to obtain.
Shogo Ikeda
Shogo Ikeda is a potter who works on Tanegashima in Kagoshima Prefecture. He uses local clay and materials to produce work primarily in the Oribe, Kohiki, and Nanban styles. His pieces have a distinctively flavored character that leaves a lasting impression.
Anyone hoping to buy a work by Shogo Ikeda has to enter a lottery for each individual piece. And the drawing itself is held on a weekday morning, which is a high hurdle for the general public to clear.
Of Shogo Ikeda’s five works, two were already sold. Fans had turned up to enter the lottery, and the piece most characteristic of Ikeda’s style (center of the photo above) apparently drew the heaviest interest, skewing the demand.
When I picked one up, the form was somewhat off-balance, but the tactile sense of clay in the hand was superb.
Sawako Kobayashi
The other lottery artist, Sawako Kobayashi, creates works whose painted decoration has a three-dimensional quality. Her well-balanced, symmetrical forms are also feminine and beautiful.
Mitsuho Tsuri
Though not part of the lottery, the works of an artist named Mitsuho Tsuri had a rather unusual construction. I was startled — they look like baskets woven from rattan.
The shapes feel hand-pinched, and they have a warm quality to them.
The work is titled “Woven-Cord Ceramic Tea Bowl.” The artist seems fully committed to pushing forward the category of “knitted ceramics.” Prices were also on the more accessible side, making them easy to acquire.
Mika Sato
This artist too was drawing plenty of attention. These are works by Mika Sato.
The inside and outside of the tea bowl connect like the cross-section of a stick of Kintaro candy. The technique is called “nerikomi” — a ceramic method in which color-tinted clays are combined and fired.
The patterns are truly beautiful.
I also made some new discoveries — a very worthwhile show.
