Large bowl

Object Details

• Artist

  Hamada Shoji (1894-1978)

• Description

  Deep bowl with everted, flattened rim.

  Clay: Mashiko stoneware, wheel thrown.

  Glaze: iron (kaki) glaze splashed over rice-husk ash (nuka) glaze.

• Label

  As a boy in Tokyo, Hamada Shoji chose a career in art after reading the writings of the French Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919). Upon graduating from the Ceramics division of Tokyo Technical Institute, Hamada worked in Saint Ives, Cornwall, with the prominent English ceramist Bernard Leach (1887-1979). In 1924, Hamada settled in Mashiko, a town east of Tokyo that produced utilitarian pottery. There he reassembled several old farmhouses to create the idealized rural setting in which he would develop unique interpretations of traditional country pottery forms. This bowl represents the largest form that Hamada produced regularly. He decorated such bowls by ladling glazes of contrasting colors over the inner surface to form large, simple patterns. During firing in the wood-burning kiln, the glazes melted together to create subtle gradations of color.

• Provenance

  From at least early 1950s

  Idamae Burati, Rockville, MD, from at least the early 1950s [1]

  From 1989

  Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, purchased from Idamae Burati in 1989

  Notes:

  [1] The provenance of the bowl is confirmed by a group photograph taken at Hamada's home in the early 1950's, showing the Buratis and Hamada, who is holding the bowl.

• Collection

  National Museum of Asian Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Paper and Clay from Modern Japan (January 20 to March 31, 1991)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Idamae Burati (1909-2000)

• Origin

  Mashiko, Tochigi prefecture, Japan

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Smithsonian Unrestricted Trust Funds

• Type

  Vessel

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1940s, 1950s

• Name

  Burati, Idamae

• Place

  Japan, Tochigi prefecture, Mashiko

• Topic

  Art, Showa era (1926 - 1989), Stoneware, Japanese Art, Ceramics

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)