Description

This large vase takes its form from a hooped wooden bucket (te-oke), transposed into ceramic with a very assertive sculptural presence. The body is constructed of slightly faceted vertical panels, the surface of which is punctuated by thick edges and raised areas, as if the material had been carved after assembly. At the shoulder, two uprights frame a horizontal crossbar, a deliberately massive element that reinforces the idea of an assembled object rather than simply thrown on a wheel.

The dense, deep Oribe glaze here oscillates from copper green to dark olive green, with almost black accumulations in the hollows and bold drips that run down towards the base. The sinuous, vibrant reliefs evoke stylized swirls or waves, but without any narrative decoration: they are traces of gesture, ridges of paste and glaze that catch the light. On one face, a deliberate reserve reveals a brown and ochre fragment, like a panel of slip or underglaze paint, intentionally presented as a break in the continuity of the green.

The base is left more exposed, with a granular clay surface and firing deposits, anchoring the object in an aesthetic of kiln and materiality rather than a smooth finish. The piece clearly belongs to the family of powerful, frontal forms that are Takauchi's signature: an Oribe that doesn't seek delicacy, but rather the tension between structure, thickness, and glaze.

Takauchi Shūgō (高内秀剛, born 1937)

Takauchi Shūgō (高内秀剛, born in 1937) was born in Tokyo and established himself as a potter in Mashiko, Tochigi Prefecture. His career path is atypical: he initially worked as an employee before dedicating himself to ceramics after a pivotal encounter with Mashiko and the world of Hamada Shōji, a major figure in the Mingei movement. He opened his own kiln in Mashiko in 1968, at the age of 31, and quickly became a prominent figure in the Japanese postwar scene.

What distinguishes him is his choice of a language inspired by Oribe and Shino, styles historically associated with Minoan art, but reinterpreted with an almost sculptural physicality: thick walls, forms of buckets, troughs, or assembled containers, surfaces worked by incision and the addition of material. His recognition extends beyond Japan. He received an award at the Vallauris International Biennial and, in 1998, the Tochigi Prefectural Cultural Prize. His works are featured in several public collections, notably in Australia, as well as at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Dimensions

40 x 25 x 16 cm