Sugimoto Sadamitsu 杉本貞光 (*1935)

An outstanding Iga flower vase with attached handles (mimizuki hanaire) by Sugimoto Sadamitsu. Born in Tōkyō in 1935, Sugimoto is a self-taught, highly admired master of Iga and Shigaraki pottery. He built his own anagama kiln in Shigaraki in 1968. Along with his research and study of old Shigaraki and Iga ware, he became interested in Zen Buddhism and has been a disciple of Tachibana Daiki (1899-2005, 511th head monk of Daitoku-ji and president of Hanazono University) since 1974.

Over the years, his rigorous training in Zen has infused his pottery works with the power of a liberal and unsophisticated spirit, making him one of the best Iga potters of our time. Focusing mainly on traditional tea ware, Sugimoto's works were shown, for example, at an exhibition commemorating the 400th anniversary of the tea master Sen no Rikyū in 1989. It is noteworthy that in the same year some of his works were selected for a movir about Sen no Rikyū by Teshigahara Hiroshi, which brought him additional recognition as one of the best potters of our time. His work is widely represented in international public and private museum collections around the world, including the Tokyo National Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Pavilion for Japanese Art.

This vase has the old flavor of Momoyama Iga ware. The rough surface is almost completely covered with a heavy ash glaze. The shape of the vessel is coarse and freely decorated with some horizontal scratch marks. Its tilted appearance, however, is perfectly calculated by the potter so that the front of the vase leans slightly toward the viewer, as if gently greeting and presenting the flower arrangement. The encrustation of the glaze on the foot and the vertical direction of the glaze indicate that the vase was laid on its side during firing. This technique, known in Japanese as korogashi or " knocked-over," is a risky way to achieve the most spectacular glaze effects, but it could also result in the destruction of the object during firing. Sugimoto mastered this technique, and his work features a fantastically vivid landscape of blackened and browned ash, accompanied by a glassy green ash glaze that pools and drips on the surface of the vessel.

The vase is signed with the potter's mark on the inside wall and comes with original inscribed, signed and sealed wooden box.

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