Miyashita Zenji 宮下 善爾

The eldest son of the distinguished porcelain artist Miyashita Zenju (1901-1968), MIYASHITA ZENJI attended Kyoto City University of Arts and studied under Tomimoto Kenkichi and Kondo Yūzō. While teaching at the university as a part-time instructor from 1966 to 1985, he also interacted with and was inspired by sculpturally focused masters Yagi Kazuo, Suzuki Osamu, and Kiyomizu Kyūbey. Miyashita was affiliated with Seitōkai and the Nitten group, exhibiting in their annual competitions, which he won 18 times. His works have been included in exhibitions throughout the world and acquired by major museums in Japan, the US, and Europe.

Using a saidei (colored-clay overlay) technique, Miyashita applied extremely thin layers of delicately gradated colored clay in irregular bands to cover the surface of each sculptural vessel or form, transforming the surfaces into distant hills, drifting clouds or rolling waves.

Selected Public Collections:

Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, NC
Aichi Prefectural Museum, Japan
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand
Birmingham Museum of Art, AL
British Museum, London, UK
Brooklyn Museum, NY
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Ithaca, NY
Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN
Japan Foundation, New York, NY
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Japan
Kyoto Prefectural Library and Archives, Japan
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN
Musée Cernuschi, Paris, France
Musée des Arts Décoratif, Paris, France
Musée National de Cèramique, Sèvres, France
Museum of Ceramic Art, Hyogo, Japan
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, Japan
Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama, Japan
Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, Japan
National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC
National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
Newark Museum, NJ
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA
Portland Art Museum, OR
Robert F. Agrella Art Gallery, Santa Rosa, CA
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada
St. Louis Museum of Art, MO
Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA
Spencer Art Museum, Lawrence, KS
Stiftung Keramion, Frechen, Germany
Worcester Art Museum, MA