KAKUREZAKI Ryuichi: a master piece
The artist Kakurezaki entered the ceramics scene in the late 1980s in Bizen, where a significant movement had coalesced around innovation within tradition. Kakurezaki and his contemporaries looked to the long history of the ceramic arts in Bizen and built upon the precepts of traditional Bizen-ware, subtly yet significantly modernizing the form through imaginative new processes and formal components.
As a native of Nagasaki, Kakurezaki was able to approach the Bizen style with fresh eyes, and because of this his work takes on a playful, outsider's approach to the local history. This water jar, whose shape is reminiscent of an American football, wonderfully exemplifies Kakurezaki's unique style. Abandoning the traditional high-fired, unglazed style of Bizen-ware, he instead creates a rich, earthy brown glaze that is beautifully accented with deep ash deposits on all sides. The organic surface provides a nice contrast for the flat fitted lid, just as the bulbous shape provides a counterpoint to the jutting upper angle. Kakurezaki's innovative designs have earned him almost rockstar status in Japan, an image perpetuated as much by his good looks as his blockbuster exhibitions.
He graduated a popular design school, has received both the Japan Ceramic Society Award and the Okayama Cultural Encouragement Prize, and is included in numerous public and private collections. Looking at Kakurezaki's work, it is easy to see the reason for this popularity and to imagine a future filled with even more possibilities.
KAKUREZAKI Ryuichi
1950 Born in Fukue, Nagasaki
1973 Graduated from Osaka University of Art
1995 Grand Prize, the 8th MOA Okada Mokichi Award
1996 The Japan Ceramics Association Award
1997 Bizen Ware, A Thousand Years of Traditional Beauty, National Ceramic Museum, France
2000 Invited to Tea Ceremony: Contemporary Forms, Helsinki Museum, Finland
2005 Contemporary Clay: Japanese Ceramics for the New Century,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston / Japan society, USA
Selected Public Collection:
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK, Sèvres National Ceramic Museum, France, Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, New Orleans Museum of Art, Everson Museum of Art, New York, Saint Louis Art Museum,
Yale University Art Gallery
Bizen Water Container 備前水指
H6.2" x W8.6" xL11"
With Signed Wood Box
