Sculpture-Vase / Black Bizen / Bizen / Isezaki Koichiro
Black Bizen Sculpture-Vase by Isezaki Koichiro
Isezaki Koichiro (b.1974) is the first son of Bizen's current Living National Treasure Isezaki Jun, and is one of the up-and-coming stars of the Isezaki family. Isezaki Yozan, Koichiro's grandfather and the father of LNT Jun and Okayama Prefecture Intangible Cultural Property Mitsuru((1934-2011), was of the first generation of great Bizen potters in the 20th century, and was himself an Okayama Prefecture Intangible Cultural Property. Koichiro comes from a family with a storied history, but this does not in the least hinder the creativity of this artist. He first studied at the Tokyo Sculptural University before embarking on an apprenticeship with New York-based potter Jeff Shapiro, a talented potter who had learned from Koichiro's father's apprentice Yamashita Jyoji. Koichiro's thoroughly original style thus is a conglomeration of Shapiro, Jun, and his father's famous apprentice Kakurezaki Ryuichi. However, Koichiro is a focused young artist, and takes all of his influences in stride without dwelling on any single person. This bold black Bizen form--a dark iron slip combined with natural ash-glaze sesame goma--has a strong, dark primitive aura, similar to an Akiyama Yo work. In perfect condition with a signed box, 28cm. tallx12x9.8 at base, signed on base.