Kumano Kurōemon 熊野九郎右ヱ門 (*1955)

Outstanding sake ware by Kumano Kurōemon. Kumano, born in Fukui in 1955, is one of the most representative studio potters in Japan today. He lives reclusively in rural Japan and is nicknamed the "Bear of Echizen," a play on his name (kuma, bear) and a play on both his appearance and his vibrant, powerful ceramic style.

Echizen (present-day Fukui Prefecture) - one of the so-called Six Old Kilns (rokkoyō) - is an ancient pottery center known for its high-fired stoneware. Kumano follows this tradition, but takes it in a new direction with his own unique glaze, which he calls Kumano-Shino and Matsuzaka-Shino (named after a type of feldspar). Intensely fired in his Anagama kiln at around 1500 degrees Celsius, Kumano's works are bold, surprisingly large, and often have extreme surfaces with fantastic encrustations of glaze, such as the work presented here.

The sake bottle and cup in this set have crusty traces of firing supports on the front. They are thickly coated with a light celadon feldspar glaze with traces of green ash glaze running down. A beautiful single drop of clear glaze highlights the rim of the sake bottle. Since Kumano's work is mostly muted in color, this exceptionally bright and slightly glossy set is a real eye-catcher.

Kumano named this set 'chōgetsu' 釣月 and inscribed it on the box with his own expressive handwriting. Chōgetsu is a term that refers to a Japanese saying 'Fishing the moon, cultivating the clouds' (Tsuki wo tsuri, kumo wo tagayasu 月を釣り、雲を耕す), which is said to be originally used by Zen master Dōgen (1200-1253). The words speak of the quintessential importance in human life to pause for a moment and enjoy the splendors of nature even within the hard work of existential livelihood.

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