Platter
by YAMATO Yasuo (b. 1933)
Showa period, 1977
Hagi stoneware
37.5 (dia) x 3 (h) cm.
Sealed wrapping cloth
Signed. Signed tomobako
Price: £2300
About
This large, octagonal platter, decorated with a single, beautiful stem of orchid is the work of legendary hagi potter, Yamato Yasuo. His father, Yamato Harunobu Shoroku, was the 11th generation head of a family famed for their tea-ceremony ware. Established in the early 17th century in modern Yamaguchi prefecture in far-western Honshu, the hagi tradition grew from trade influences that had introduced new Korean ceramic styles and techniques. The simple, understated style was attractive to the local daimyo seeking tea-ceremony wares, who developed the local industry through their sponsorship of the kilns.
Like many potters of his generation, Yasuo initially rebelled against the strict and conservative tradition and joined the radical Sodeisha group that had been founded in 1948 to challenge the very notion of functional work. However, he was to remain true to the hagi tradition while infusing his work with innovation. His works have been widely exhibited, including with Sodeisha. In 1959 he received First Prize at the Nitten and, in 1975 achieved First Prize at the Nihon Dento Kogei Ten.
This work was shown in 1977 at his solo exhibition in Shimonoseki. (A handwritten cloth slip records that it was bought for 300,000 yen). It is illustrated in the accompanying catalogue, in which the forward by Yuzuru Okada, director of the Tokyo's National Museum of Modern Art observed that 'his works exude ingenuity and possibility, newness and conservatism, all intertwined... a sense of masterful authority that no one else could emulate'.
In 1988 Yasuo was designated an Intangible Property for Hagi, and work by him is widely held in museum collections in Japan and internationally, including within the Ise Shrine and the Imperial Household.