Henko-Jar / Original Style / Kyoto / Yasuda Zenko
Thickly-Glazed Henko-Jar by Yasuda Zenko
With deep thanks and appreciation to all who have visited our gallery this year, from Mishima to Kyoto. Change is the only constant and many changes indeed for us and Japan this year; again our sincere appreciation to all for visiting the gallery and for your patronage. Next year is the Year of the Dragon--a Water Dragon to be exact--and we look forward to sharing more and wider the beauty of Japanese ceramic art. Wishing all a pleasant New Year! Here is our last offering of 2011 and fittingly enough a Kyoto veteran. Yasuda Zenko (b.1926) graduated from Kyoto Craft-Fabric University(Kyoto Kogei Seni Daigaku) in 1949 where he majored in the making of kilns. After that he studied with Kiyomizu RokubeeVl(1901-1980). Yasuda has been a staple of Nitten ever since. In 1958 Yasuda was awarded the Japan Ceramic Society Prize and in 1964 his work was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. Before Yasuda took on the name Zenko he was known as Tomohiko. The contrast on this work between the thick-crackled ice-like clear glaze and the rusty beet red surface is abstract in a painterly 3-D way; the icing bands connect to everything, a metaphor of the connections in the world. In perfect condition with a signed box, 22.8cm.tallx12x9, stamped on base, the work dates to 1984, the year Robert came to Japan. How time flows........kampai to health, happiness and prosperity in 2012!