Shallow porcelain bowl with carved design of four baby quails
Katô Hajime
Description
While the initial interest of twentieth-century potters in pre-modern ceramics centered on robust, warm-glazed wares like Shino and Oribe, or non-glazed wares like Bizen and Shigaraki, in the postwar period many potters were drawn to smooth and polished stonewares and porcelain. Among them, Katô Hajime was recognized for his incomparable passion for the great stoneware and porcelain traditions of China and the Middle East, as well as for his superb technique. This large white bowl, thinly potted to perfection, has a witty carved design of baby quails.
For the Kyoto potter Kondô Yûzô, the pure white surface of porcelain was an ideal canvas for vividly rendering subjects from nature. He once said: “In my pottery, I try to achieve the life that naturally fills the shapes of fruits and plants from mountains and fields, to express their freshness, vibrant power, their grace, and their rigor.”
(Turning Point exhibition, Spring 2010)
Subject Matter:
The green pheasant, kiji in Japanese, was adopted as the National bird of Japan in 1947. They have been said to be a symbol of motherly love, and also with the bright plumage of the males used to attract mates, a symbol of masculinity.
Physical Description:
White porcelain bowl with carved inside and smooth outside. A ring is carved along the inside rim, and below are quails alternating with grasses.
Usage Rights:
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