Bizen Bowl by Sueishi Taisetsu

Japan, late 20th or early 21st century.

Large Bizen stoneware bowl, constructed from assembled slabs, with an open, fragmented, almost architectural form. The body unfolds in irregular, raised, overlapping, and partially openwork panels. The piece retains the spirit of a bowl, but it also functions as a low sculpture, based on the rhythm of planes, breaks, and voids.

The surface presents the natural Bizen tones: reddish browns, dark browns, ash greys, and lighter areas. The wood firing produced very perceptible material variations, without added glaze. The slabs show rough textures, more metallic passages, duller areas, and fire marks. The ensemble gives an impression of a mineral landscape, like a form born from the kiln rather than decoratively molded.

Sueishi Taisetsu, whose real name is Sueishi Misao, was born in 1953 in Inbe, Bizen city. He trained at the Okayama Ceramic Center starting in 1973, then worked at the Okayama Industrial Institute. In 1975, he established his own kiln in Inbe. His career is linked to learning Bizen from Matsui Yoshiyuki and Shibaoka Kōichi, the latter being a relative by marriage whose work allegedly led him to ceramics.

His work is regularly presented in major Japanese ceramic exhibitions. He was selected for the Nihon Dentō Kōgei-ten as early as 1975, then again in subsequent years; he also exhibited at the Nihon Tōgei-ten, the Nitten, the Shinshō Kōgeikai-ten, and regional Nihon Kōgeikai exhibitions. In 1975, he received the Issuikai Prize, then in 2009, the Issuikai Members' Excellence Award.

Sueishi primarily works Bizen using the tatara method, i.e., with clay slabs. He creates vases, tea utensils, tableware, jars, panels, and lighting objects. This bowl corresponds well to this orientation: it uses the slab as a construction element, retains the raw strength of Inbe clay, and transforms the functional object into a sculptural form.

Original signed Tomobako. Artist's printed Shiori included.

Dimensions: 30 × 28 × 10 cm.