Araki Toshio — Large sculptural vase in grey ceramic with silver inlay

Araki Toshio
Tokoname, Japan

Signed box, titled 灰陶銀象嵌器 — Kaitō gin-zōgan utsuwa, “grey ceramic vessel with silver inlay.”

Large, almost spherical vase, constructed as a taut mass, slightly flattened on one side. The outer wall is animated by vertical folds and deep striations that evoke a compressed material, almost textile or mineral. The brown to grey surface, dry and rough, captures light through successive rubbings and folds. The flat side opens in the center to a dark, matte, cracked area like dried skin, with silver inlays. The contrast between the organic outer mass and this quieter inner face gives the work a very architectural presence.

The technique is original in Tokoname’s production: Araki does not seek the effect of a brilliant glaze, but a tension between grey clay, incision, rough material, and metallic glints. The silver is not decorative in the ornamental sense; it acts as a luminous punctuation within a deliberately austere surface. The work belongs to the field of Japanese exhibition ceramics, halfway between a vase, an object, and a sculpture. The vase has retained its signed tomobako.

Araki Toshio, born in Tokoname in 1935 and died in 2013, is associated with the Hakusan-gama kiln. He exhibited at the Nitten from 1975 and received significant distinctions throughout his career, including two Tokusen, in 1996 and 2001. His career is also marked by awards at the Asahi Ceramic Exhibition, the Japan Contemporary Arts and Crafts Exhibition, as well as several Chōzaburō awards in Tokoname.

In 1978, he received a silver medal at the International Ceramic Exhibition in Vallauris, placing him in a Franco-Japanese dialogue of contemporary ceramics.

Dimensions: height 33.5 cm × width 36 cm × depth 31 cm.