Koinuma Michio 肥沼美智雄, unglazed ceramic vase

Japan, late 20th or early 21st century

An unglazed ceramic vase by Koinuma Michio, almost spherical in shape, slightly tapered towards a short, thick opening. The volume is simple, dense, very compact, with a stable base and a silhouette that evokes less a traditional decorative vase than an archaic vessel or an archaeological find. The surface has a dark, brown-black skin, animated by metallic passages, rubbings, lighter clouds and deliberately irregular areas of wear, which give the whole the appearance of an ancient object exhumed from the earth. The original box is preserved.

This work is highly representative of Koinuma Michio's research into archaic forms and the archaeological memory of ceramics. Japanese sources and major specialized galleries emphasize his interest in ancient Chinese bronzes, haniwa, and more broadly, forms arising from an archaeological imagination. The Mashiko Museum describes his works as robust forms reminiscent of ancient bronzes, with a dark skin comparable to old metal, while Dai Ichi Arts emphasizes surfaces evoking weathered stone or corroded metal. This reference to an archaeological past is essential to understanding this vase.

Born in Tokyo in 1936, Koinuma Michio moved to Mashiko in 1969 and opened his kiln there in 1970. He worked mainly by hand-modeling, without relying on the wheel, which explains the very free strength of his volumes. The Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art dedicated an exhibition to him in 2022, Koinuma Michio and His Age. The artist died in August 2020 at the age of 84.

Koinuma Michio's institutional recognition is well established. Art Platform Japan documents several works preserved at the Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, including pieces dated 1974, 1975, 1981, and 1989. His presence is also strongly relayed by Dai Ichi Arts, which included him in 2025 in the New York exhibition Mavericks: Three Masters of Japanese Ceramics, alongside Kawamoto Goro and Tsuboshima Dohei.

The piece is entirely consistent with the most characteristic part of his work, by its compact form, its archaizing contour, and its ancient metal-like surface. It can be read as a vase, but also as an autonomous sculptural work, as its volume and skin are sufficient to give it its own presence.

Dimensions: height 20 cm; diameter 22 cm.