Urano Shigekichi (1881-1923) [Kenzan 6th Generation]

SIGNED KENZAN, CIRCA 1910

Details

Urano Shigekichi (1881-1923) [Kenzan 6th Generation]
Signed Kenzan, circa 1910
The mokko-shaped mukozuke [food bowl] with ring foot, decorated in underglaze blue over white slip with flowers and leaves, the interior with a roundel with a bird and flowers, iron oxide to the rim
11.8cm. wide

Provenance

Bernard Leach
Jessamine Kendall (Bernard's daughter)

Literature

Exhibition Catalogue, The English Arts and Crafts Movement and Hamada Shoji, (Japan, 1997-8), no.167, p.124

Exhibited

The English Arts and Crafts Movement and Hamada Shoji, Japan, 1997-8

Lot Essay

Urano Shigekichi (Kenzan 6th) (see lot 74) was Bernard's teacher from 1911 in Japan, when he decided to take up pottery as a career. Urano built two kilns for him, one at Bernard's Awa house and, when that burned down, another on Yanagi Soetsu's land in Abiko about 40 kilometers North-East of Tokyo.

When Urano died he left the title and associated papers with glazes etc to Bernard, who thus became Kenzan 7th. Eventually having recognised that he had no intention of working in the Kenzan style and tradition, he returned the title and papers to Japan.

More from The Japanese Aesthetic

View All