To ring in the Year of the Horse, Joan B Mirviss LTD is delighted to present Playing with Tradition: Modern and Contemporary Mino. The exhibition will be on view at the gallery and online beginning in early January 2026. From the crawling, unctuous white glaze of Shino wares to the whimsical, textile-inspired patterns and dripping green glazes of the wares favored by the warrior tea master Furuta Oribe (1544-1615), ceramics from the Mino region have long been characterized by aesthetic variety and experimentation. The exhibition features a selection of Shino, Seto, and Oribe ceramics by past masters of this regional tradition, including Arakawa Toyozō (1894-1985), Kawakita Handeishi (1878-1963), Koie Ryōji (1938-2020), and Katō Yasukage (1964-2012), and living legends like Suzuki Gorō (b. 1941), Wakao Toshisada (b. 1933), and Living National Treasure Suzuki Osamu (Kura) (b. 1934). These consummate works will be complemented by works from younger, emerging artists pushing the boundaries of Mino aesthetics. A celebration of the region’s enduring legacy, this exhibition highlights Mino’s spirit of experimentation and play.
The history of Mino ceramics is inseparable from that of chanoyu, the Japanese tea ceremony. An increasingly popular pastime among warriors and wealthy merchants from the fifteenth century onwards, chanoyu transformed the serving and drinking of tea from a social nicety into an elaborate ritual infused with a religious and philosophical rigor. In many ways, the philosophy of chanoyu was materialized in the form of the utensils that were used and placed on display, which guests enthusiastically documented in the records they kept of each gathering. With the rise of wabicha in the sixteenth century, taste shifted from luxurious Chinese import wares to more humble ceramics of local origin, whose beauty was located precisely in their rusticity and imperfection.
In their hunt for new and engaging objects, tea masters were instrumental in the emergence of Mino as a center of ceramic production. They collaborated with ceramists at local kilns, whose experimentation had given rise to new and innovative glazing formulas, to create the iconic ceramic styles that would define the region for centuries to come. Visit us at Joan B Mirviss LTD this January for a chance to see the legacy of this ceramic tradition as it lives on today.