Mashiko Pottery, Japan

This is the name given to the pottery traditionally made in Mashiko, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan.

Early pottery in the town dates back to the Jōmon and Yayoi periods and was functional wares used locally.

Pottery from earlier times was rustic in style, with brown and occasionally red glazes but the modern pottery produced here comes in many styles. This was due largely to Shoji Hamada opening a kiln in the town during the early 1930s and giving the area a creative freedom.

Shoji Hamada and later his former apprentice, Tatsuzō Shimaoka, were both designated as Living National Treasures and they and other Mashiko based potters may appear here as well as under Topic headings of their own.

I believe this is possibly from Mashiko , it's about 10" High & Quite heavy , some faint crazing on the glaze , otherwise perfect any ideas as to age ?

What might the flower be ?

an orchid?

So just to re-cap , what is the flower , is it deffo Mashiko ?, What is the potters name ?, where does he live ? how old is He ? assuming it's a he and what did he /she have for breakfast ? Oh and hurry up I haven't got all day you know ( actually I have )

Looks like a fine stoneware to me?

I agree with Dan on the flower, I'd say that is a Slipper Orchid.

Thanks all , i'm hopeless on flowers but an Orchid would seem right , it's stoneware , quite a heavy piece and handthrown , there are so many studios in Mashiko , trying to find the right Kiln won't be easy , I emailed a japanese potter living in the states he reckons Mashiko but doesn't recognize the seal mark , I'll keep on googlin' .

big ed what date will date your vase? from my point of view it looks more like 1920's or even earlier

I don't honestly know , however I saw Hamada had this shape and similar decor in a circle and that was dated 1948 , mine has fine crazing on the painted part , but I wouldn't think it was as early as the 20's ., but again I don't have a clue as yet .

http://www.e-yakimono.net/html/hamada-shoji.html

My guess is that is was made in the 1980/1990s and the glazes are like the ones popularised by Hamada and his followers in Mashiko.

Unlike most other pottery centres in Japan the work made in Mashiko bears no relationship to the wares made there before Hamada and today there is a considerable variety to be found, with the makers originate from all over the world. This is completely different to other Japanese pottery centres where often families have work there for generations.

The difficulty is saying whether this was actually made in Mashiko is that potters have emulated this form and glaze around the world, included the Friths in Wales. Therefore without identifying the potter from the mark it is really only possible to say that it is likely to have been made in Mashiko.

Ed did PM me and I told him the mark isn't that of a Mashiko potter that I am aware off but there will be dozens of others whose work I have never seen.

Hi all, my first post, and an exciting one for me. I recently purchased a collection of pottery (particularly for some fantastic older pieces including an incredible karatsu pot from the Momoyama period that I can post of there is interest.) Obviously the previous collector had a great eye and as such I am very interested in the more modern pieces from the collection. I believe that they all probably come from the Mashiko region and that an artist ID is next to impossible without a signed tomobaku but I was hoping that somebody might be able to give me a rough period for the pieces and an artist that they are in the style of, I am really quite taken with them (especially the round plate,) and would love to know more.

Thanks so much

Alex

Square Plate 1





Square plate 2





Round plate





Yunomi

Welcome Alex and thank you for your post. Although I will run through all the items here it would in future be much better to start a separate thread for each pot. This is because all the items might not be related, as could be the case here. Also it makes it much easier to put positive IDs in the correct thread if a positive identification is forthcoming.

I'll reply separately for each.

Square plate 1 could be Japanese but I think it is more likely to have been made elsewhere in the Anglo-Japanese style that was made popular by Bernard Leach here in the UK.

As you are Stateside it could well have been made relatively locally.

Square plate 2 is Japanese in the Oribe style and was probably made in Seto or Mino. No seal or incised mark suggests it was factory made.

Round plate. This was almost certainly made in Mashiko in the style made popular by Shoji Hamada. I am 90% sure that it comes from the Tsukamoto factory there, as these were imported into California by a company called Takahashi in San Francisco for a long period. It would have had a paper label that has been removed.

The yunomi was again made in a factory in Mashiko in the style popularised by Hamada and is perhaps most familiar to UK collectors. This is because many were imported here in the late 1970s/early 1980s by someone who planned to open a Japanese restaurant chain. An idea that was ahead of its time and so it never materialised, resulting in these yunomis entering the secondary market. You can regularly find these on Ebay and on occasions they are attributed to Shoji Hamada or members of his family, which is nonsense.

No problem but we can't promise the same quick response every time.

NaomiM wrote:

studio-pots wrote:Square plate 2 is Japanese in the Oribe style and was probably made in Seto or Mino. No seal or incised mark suggests it was factory made.

Looks like a hand trimmed foot and sides to me, so I disagree about it being factory made. Although the lack of a mark suggests it was communally made domestic ware.

You might be correct, Naomi, but factory made in Japan isn't always the same as factory made in the West, as they often have craftsmen making or throwing by hand and not always firing with electric kilns. On balance I do still stick with my original opinion.

NaomiM wrote:Indeed. Looks more handmade compared to the 2 yunomis, which do look factory made.

The Yunomi's are also handmade though, just in a factory type setting.