Kohyama Yasuhisa 神山易久

Shigaraki hanaire with natural ash glaze

Japan, Shigaraki, 20th century.
Wood-fired Shigaraki stoneware with natural ash glaze. Signed piece. Original signed tomobako.

This hanaire belongs to the most recognizable vocabulary of Kohyama Yasuhisa: unglazed Shigaraki stoneware, built as a sculptural form and transformed by wood firing. A broad flow of natural ash covers the vase from one side to the other, giving the piece its mineral presence. The tomobako bears the inscription 信楽自然釉 花入, “Shigaraki hanaire with natural glaze”, together with the signature 庵窯 易久, Iori-gama Yasuhisa.

Born in Shigaraki in 1936, Kohyama Yasuhisa is one of the major figures of modern Japanese ceramics. His work is inseparable from the clay of Shigaraki, one of Japan’s Six Ancient Kilns, but he does not work as a maker of traditional reproductions. He played a decisive role in the revival of wood firing in the anagama kiln and is often cited as the first Shigaraki potter to reconstruct this type of kiln in the region since the Middle Ages. This is essential to understanding his work: it places it within a long history, while giving it a modern, sculptural and almost abstract ambition.

In the 1960s, Kohyama worked with designers and architects, and in 1964 contributed to a tile installation designed by Okamoto Tarō for the Tokyo Olympic Stadium. He founded his own studio in 1968 and went on to develop cut, opened and carved forms in which the surface is not decorated but revealed by flame, ash and the position of the piece in the kiln.

His works are held in several major public collections. The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds, among others, Vessel from 1994 and Wind from 2004. The Philadelphia Museum of Art holds Impression in Form, a vase from 2002. The Cleveland Museum of Art holds a work from the Wind series, dated 1994, intended for ikebana. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art holds Squared Vessel: Slice of Earth, in Shigaraki stoneware with natural ash glaze. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston also holds a work from the Kaze / Wind series, dated around 2004. His work is also cited in the collections of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

This piece should be presented as a sculptural Shigaraki hanaire, signed and accompanied by its tomobako, belonging to Kohyama’s mature work around raw clay, natural ash and the archaic memory of fire.

Dimensions: H. 23.5 cm; W. 32 cm; D. 10 cm.

Verification sources: Kohyama’s role in the revival of the anagama kiln and his studio are documented by Erskine Hall & Coe and by the Embassy of Japan in the United Kingdom. The works held by the Met, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, LACMA and MFAH are documented in the corresponding collection records.