Chawan / Black Bizen / Bizen / Isezaki Koichiro
Black Bizen Chawan by Isezaki Koichiro
Isezaki Koichiro (b.1974) is the first son of Living National Treasure Isezaki Jun, and is one of the up-and-coming stars of the Isezaki family--that including his four cousins. Isezaki Yozan, Koichiro's grandfather and the father of LNT Jun and Okayama Prefecture Intangible Cultural Property Mitsuru, 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 seem to bog 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 Yamashita Joji, Jun's former apprentice. First from Shapiro, Koichiro studied the workings of the anagama kiln, and also picked up the style of forms that he would take back with him back to Bizen. Koichiro's style, thus, is a conglomeration of Shapiro, Jun, and his father's famous apprentice Kakurezaki Ryuichi. However, Koichiro is a keen young artist, and takes all of his influences in stride without dwelling on any single person. He achieves great firings from his father's kiln and a unique firing is his hikidashi (pulled out of the kiln) Black Bizen, of which this chawan is a supreme example, even better then the one now on display at the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art. The form share more in common with a Raku Kichizaemon VX than his father and the firing is varied, rich and shibui; it's well-balanced in the hands and is truly special. In perfect condition with a signed box, 11cm.tallx13.3x12.5, signed on the base.
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