Kamoda Shōji
Vessel with blue enamel decoration against striped matte-black ground
1977
Glazed stoneware
12 1/4 x 9 1/2 x 7 in.
Inv# 10264
SOLD
Matsui Kōsei
Early and rare neriage vessel with sand-blasted surface
1973
Marbleized stoneware
16 1/2 x 11 1/4 x 10 3/4 in.
Inv# 10265
SOLD
Wada Morihiro
Hassanmonki
"Linear Cedar-patterned" vessel
1990
Slip-glazed stoneware
25 3/8 x 12 x 10 in.
Inv# 10364
SOLD
Wada Morihiro (1944-2008)
Kanmonki; Vessel with Abstract-Patterns-within-Rectangles Patterning
1990-1992
Slip-glazed stoneware
22 3/4 x 13 1/2 x 9"
SOLD
Matsui Kōsei (1927-2003)
Himalaya
1985
Marbleized stoneware
14 x 16 1/2"
Inv# 10180
SOLD
Kamoda Shōji (1933-1983)
Gray standing square unglazed vessel with blue & white striped enamel inlays set into curving bands and slightly lobed mouth
1977
Glazed stoneware with enamel inlay
17 x 5 1/2 x 5 3/4"
SOLD
Kamoda Shōji
Raised, footed platter with polychrome enamel curvilinear patterning
1977
Glazed stoneware
2 1/8 x 10 in.
Inv# 10288
SOLD
Wada Morihiro
Sōun kamonki
"Misty Cloud-and-flower-patterned" vessel
1985
Slip-glazed stoneware
16 1/4 x 13 x 7 3/4 in.
Inv# 10363
SOLD
Matsui Kōsei
Ryūsui kōun
"Streaming River and Floating Clouds"
ca. 1986
Slip-glazed stoneware
3 1/8 x 20 3/4 in.
Inv# 10166
SOLD
Kamoda Shōji
Columnar vase with impressed concentric semi-circular patterning
1955-1960
Ash-glazed stoneware
10 x 6 in.
SOLD
Kamoda Shōji
Small vessel with tri-color wave pattern
1978
Glazed stoneware
4 1/2 x 3/8 x 3 5/8 in.
Inv# 4896
SOLD
Kamoda Shōji
Iron-glazed shallow bowl
ca. 1960
2 7/8 x 12 3/8 in.
Inv# 10038
SOLD
Kamoda Shōji
Square platter with feather-like decoration in blue and white against gray-black ground
1975
Glazed stoneware
1 x 13 1/4 x 13 in.
Inv# 10361
SOLD
Kamoda Shōji
Diamond-patterned rounded vase
1980
Glazed stoneware
6 1/4 x 4 in.
Inv# 10354
SOLD
Matsui Kōsei
Neriage teabowl with clay-slip-paint on layered and fissured surface
ca. 1980
Slip-painted stoneware
3 1/8 x 5 1/8 x 5 in.
Inv# 9950
SOLD
Matsui Kōsei
Neriage brush-rubbed striped round vessel
1982
Marbleized stoneware
8 x 9 1/2 in.
Inv# 7687
SOLD
Matsui Kōsei
Square vessel with slip-painted blue and white patterning on textured surface
ca. 1982
Slip-painted stoneware
8 1/2 x 4 1/8 in.
Inv# 10239
SOLD
Matsui Kōsei
Gikai
"Turbulent Ocean;" neriage globular vessel
ca. 1985
Randomly marbleized stoneware
11 7/8 x 12 1/8 in.
Inv# 10003
SOLD
Matsui Kōsei
Neriage kamonko
"Floral-patterned Marbleized Vessel"
1991
Marbleized stoneware
9 x 10 1/2 in.
SOLD
Wada Morihiro
Ryūsanmonki "Flowing cedar-patterned" vessel
ca. 1992
Slip-glazed stoneware
14 1/4 x 7 x 6 3/8 in.
Inv# 9296
SOLD
Wada Morihiro
Yōmonki "Effigy-patterned" vessel
ca. 1992
Slip-glazed stoneware
7 x 9 1/2 x 8 in.
Inv# 10167
SOLD
Wada Morihiro
Saido sanmonki
"Color-slip Cedar-patterned" vessel
1979
Slip-glazed stoneware
14 3/8 x 13 1/8 x 6 1/4 in.
Inv# 8157
SOLD
Wada Morihiro
Sanmonki
"Cedar-patterned Pyramidal" vessel
1981
Slip-glazed stoneware
9 x 6 3/4 x 7 1/2 in.
Inv# 9179
SOLD
Wada Morihiro
Taiyōmonsakabin shuhai
"Acanthus leaf-patterned Sake flask and Cup"
ca. 1996
Slip-glazed stoneware
Flask 5 3/8 x 3 5/8 in., cup 2 1/8 x 2 3/4 in.
Inv# 9956
SOLD
Wada Morihiro
Saido sanmonko
"Color-slip cedar-patterned" vessel
1981
Slip-painted stoneware
7 x 6 x 4 3/4 in.
Inv# 10001
SOLD
Wada Morihiro
Saji fūsōmonki
"Wind-and-grass Patterned sand-treated" vessel
ca. 1982
Slip-glazed stoneware
8 1/2 x 14 1/4 x 6 in.
Inv# 10358
SOLD
Wada Morihiro
Saji fūsōmonki
"Wind-and-grass-patterned Sand-treated" vessel
1983
Slip-glazed stoneware
14 7/8 x 11 7/8x 6 3/8 in.
Inv# 8806
SOLD
Wada Morihiro
Kakugenki kōro
"Red-and-black-glazed Incense Burner"
ca. 1997
Slip-glazed stoneware
7 1/4 x 5 x 4 1/2 in.
Inv# 10077
SOLD
Wada Morihiro
Watashigaraki "I am lucky" vessel
ca. 2000
Unglazed Shigaraki stoneware
16 x 1/4 x 10 1/2 in.
Inv# 10627
SOLD
Wada Morihiro
Kakugen jōmonki "Red-black linear-patterned" vessel
ca. 2000
Slip-glazed stoneware
16 3/4 x 7 1/2 x 9 in.
SOLD
Wada Morihiro
Kifūmon shuhai
"Fluttering Banners-patterned Sake Cup"
ca. 2006
Slip-glazed stoneware
3 1/4 x 3 x 2 1/4 in.
Inv# 10629
SOLD
JOAN B MIRVISS LTD is thrilled to present, after many years of planning, the important exhibition of 20th century ceramic superstars––Three Giants of the North: Kamoda Shoji, Matsui Kosei and Wada Morihiro. The exhibition focuses on three of Japan’s most significant clay artists each of whom contributed to altering the style and aesthetic of ceramic history. This will be the first opportunity to see outside of Japan, a significant body of work by any of these three titans. Three Giants will open to the public on March 12th marking the start of Asia Week in New York City.
Long considered by many Japanese connoisseurs to be the greatest Japanese ceramic artist of the 20th century, Kamoda Shōji (1933-1983) was able to accomplish in half a lifetime what other artists struggle to partially attain in double the time. In an unrivaled period of productivity from 1967-78, Kamoda transformed the aesthetic appreciation of modern ceramics in Japan, awakening the entire conservative Japanese traditional ceramic world to a new vision of the concept of “function.” Always nominally functional, his stoneware “vessels” are ever imaginative in form, line, balance, glazing, and decorative adornment. Surface and form are created as a single thought, one complementing the other. Nothing is overlooked from the delicacy of the mouth to the resolution of the base, both in perfect harmony, flaunting his sculptural approach to both form and surface decoration.
Born in Kishiwada Osaka, Kamoda studied under the hugely influential Tomimoto Kenkichi at Kyoto City University of Arts, from which he graduated in 1952. By 1959, with substantial economic support, due in equal parts to his humble and generous spirit and to his monumental talent, he was able to establish his own kiln in Mashiko, far north of Tokyo. Ten years later, he left his family to work further north in near isolation in Tono, Iwate.
To this day, long after Kamoda’s premature death from leukemia at age forty-nine, ceramists continue to imitate and reinterpret his endlessly inventive forms and surface designs. His masterworks can be found in the collections of prominent museums including the National Museums of Modern Art, Kyoto and Tokyo; Palace Museum, Beijing; and Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
"’Walking into the North Wind’ was a favorite phrase of Kamoda, who lived his short life of forty-nine years with such energy and has left the contemporary Japanese ceramic scene reverberating with the impact of his innovative works.”
Nakanodo Kazunobu in Kamoda Shoji: A Prominent Figure in Contemporary Ceramics (Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 1987)
Matsui Kōsei (1927-2003), was the seminal figure in the revival of neriage (marbleized colored clay) in the late twentieth century and his influence continues after his death. As a priest at the Gesso-ji Temple in Kasama, Ibaraki Prefecture, Matsui studied ancient Chinese ceramics, allowing him to perfect and invent his own neriage techniques, consistently focusing on the manipulation of colored clays in the formulation of a ceramic vessel. Far surpassing these Chinese Tang and Cizhou historic predecessors, Matsui created highly original abstract, linear, floral, and geometric surface patterns, often with a rough-hewn texture, using a variety of techniques perfected over the decades.
His worldwide recognition for his success and creativity in this difficult but tradition-steeped process culminated in his designation as a Living National Treasure in 1993. His work is now owned by many important museums including the Art Institute of Chicago; Brooklyn Museum of Art; Ibaragi Ceramic Art Museum; Metropolitan Museum of Art; National Museums of Modern Art, Tokyo and Kyoto; Victoria & Albert Museum.
“Vibrantly colored layered clays are used to such an extent…that the conventional, narrow view of neriage has been shattered.”
Hasebe Mitsuhiko, former curator of National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Wada Morihiro (1944-2008), born in Mishinomiya, Kansai, graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts where he studied under Tomimoto Kenkichi and others. Like Kamoda before him, Wada decided to relocate from Kyoto to north of Tokyo into the ceramic town of Kasama. This dramatic move enabled him to break free of the more classical aesthetics of Kyoto and develop his own highly distinctive repertoire of motifs and techniques that were more closely aligned to the work of Kamoda.
Wada wrote, “the various vessels that I create depart from me as dramas with their own characters and roles.” To accomplish this, he created numerous surface patterns, some abstract and geometric, others more curvilinear and organic, using a highly unique repertoire of techniques that include wax resist and engraving. For all his sculptural forms, Wada painstakingly worked the exteriors through the application of colored-clay slips, after which he scrapped, incised, burnished, and textured the surface until he achieved his desired outcome.
For several decades, Wada was the most respected Japanese artist working with polychrome decorated surfaces and his sudden death in 2008 left an enormous hole in the world of contemporary Japanese ceramics. Like Matsui and Kamoda, Wada’s works have been widely exhibited outside of Japan and are found in museum collections including Faenza International Museum of Ceramics, Italy; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Musée National de céramique, Sèvres, France; and Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
ABOUT JOAN B MIRVISS LTD
Joan B. Mirviss has been a distinguished expert in Japanese art specializing in prints, paintings, screens, and ceramics for forty years. She is the leading Western dealer in the field of modern and contemporary Japanese ceramics, and from her New York gallery on Madison Avenue, JOAN B MIRVISS LTD exclusively represents most of today’s top Japanese clay artists. As a distinguished, widely published, and highly respected specialist in her field, Mirviss has advised and built collections for many museums, major private collectors, and corporations. For further information or images, please call 212-799-4021 or email director@mirviss.com
