This past summer I had occasion to visit Richard Milgrim in his Mountain Studio and asked him to pair some sake cups and Tokkuri for us. It is a rare opportunity to have an artist personally select pieces which he feels work together. This set is making use of his signature Concord glaze (Konko-yu) from America, with clay from Japan, while the cup is also using a variant of that glaze Black Concord (Konko-guro). The Tokkuri is 9 cm (3-1/2 inches) diameter, 12 cm (5 inches) tall...

A stone formed bowl covered entirely in platinum by Inayoshi Osamu enclosed in the original signed wooden box accompanied by the shiori and Shifuku. The bowl is carved and torn from a block of clay, then textured with natural stones specially selected for their surface patterns, splashed with glaze and then covered in platinum, creating dry. Matte regions punctuated by glistening liqid spatters...

A large and important work by Miyanaga Kozan of overall raw clay in a Nanban style with drips of color featuring a tiny colorful crab crawling out of a hollow in the base. It is 30.5 cm (12 inches) tall and in excellent condition, in an age darkened wooden collectors box titled Makuzu Yaki Kabin, Miyagwa Kozan Sei followed by a very large stamp...

Sturdy storage jar for tea leaves or other goods with horizontally ribbed surface, sloping shoulder with very short neck. Coarse but dense clay with small inclusions. Outside middle brown with cream-colored and yellow natural ash glaze. Mingei.
Japan, 18th/19th century.

Height 7.5 inches, width 6 inches at the neck. Ash glaze partially rubbed off at upper edge and at the body commensurate with holding and using, otherwise very good condition.

A beautifully crafted vase from a studio potter in the hills of Iga, a few hours drive east of Kyoto. Iga-ware has quite a long history—by some accounts dating back to the 7th and 8th century—with the major kilns being established some time around the end of the 16th century. Similar in many ways to Shigaraki pottery, the glaze is the result of kiln ash being vitrified and melted on to the surface of the clay body at extremely high temperatures during firing, which can last many days...

Old sake bottle of strong conical shape with a short neck and everted rim.
Underneath the beautiful milky feldspar glaze a cobalt bue and black sketch-like drawing of sprigs of bamboo. Bottom glazed brown, as is typical for this ware. Mingei.

Most likely Ofuke (or Ofukei) ware, made near Nagoya, Japan.
Edo period, circa 1800
H ca. 6 x diam at bottom ca. 5.5 in.

Ofukei has a historical relation to Seto ware...

A set of five exquisite Sencha Tea Cups of crackle-glazed pottery covered outside with black lacquer decorated with golden plum blossoms. Each bears an impressed seal in the base reading Toyosuke from the Nagoya studio of Toyoraku (also read Horaku) dating from the later 19th century. Inside each cup is a stylized single plum blossom. This set is exceptional! It is enclosed in a custom made wooden box. Each is 6.2 cm (2-1/2 inches) diameter, 4.8 cm (2 inches) tall and in excellent condition...

Mukoyama Fumiya enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Zogan Yusai Fusha-mon Tsubo (Color Inlayed Wind Mill Pattern Tsubo). It is 25 cm (10 inches) diameter, 22 cm (8-1/2 inches) tall and in excellent condition. Mukoyama Fumiya was born in Tokyo in 1960, graduating the Kyoto Ceramic Research institute before apprenticing in Hagi under 15th generation Sakakura Shinbei in 1984. He spent time in Shiga before settling in Mashiko in 1990, establishing his own kiln in 1993...

A signature work by Kiyomizu Rokubei VI enclosed in the original signed wooden box. Golden light shines through the silhouette of iron colored trees on the tapering cylinder. It was a design technique developed by this generation. The original rosewood stand is included. The vase is 31 cm (12 inches) tall and in excellent condition.
The Kiyomizu family potters managed one of the most productive workshops in Kyoto’s Gojozaka district throughout the second half of the Edo period...

Red drips slide down the dark Tenmoku glaze on this small Tsutsu-chawan tea bowl by Living National Treasure Ishiguro Munemaro enclosed in a wooden box signed by his student and future Living National Treasure Shimizu Uichi titled Ishiguro Munemaro Saku Tenmoku-yu Samon Chawan...

Five Sake Cups by the ;legendary Okabe Mineo enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Seto-Te Hai. The cups hav a very intimate feel, tiny, just enough room for a shot, each in a different style of Mino ware: Shino, E- Shino, Ki-Seto, Nezumi Shino, and Ao-Oribe. Each cup is 4.5 cm (1-3/4 inches) diameter and all are in excellent condition. It even includes the artists biography from the time, still early in his career, likely 1950s...

Dramatic waves are combed into the clay surface of this large Toban Platter by Living National Treasure Suzuki Osamu (Kura) covered in glass-like copper green; unusually signed and dated on bottom 1957 and enclosed in an artist signed wooden box. This has the wow factor in truckloads! A quintessential piece by this influential artist showing not only the innovation early in his career, but the consistency with which he approached Mino pottery, Museum quality, sure to become a centerpiece of an...

A loosely brushed image of a Kingfisher perched on dilapidated lotus stalk decorates the crackled gohon pale glaze of this gourd shaped Mizusashi fresh water jar by Takahashi (Ninnami) Dohachi. It features a black lacquered wooden lid. There are cracks in teh lacquer of the looping handle. The signature is consistent with works by Ninnami Dohachi (Dohachi II) from the mid 19th century. It is 5-3/4 inches (14.5 cm) tall, 6-1/2 inches (16.5 cm) diameter and in excellent condition, enclosed in ...

A small bowl in Kaki-yu by important artist Kawai Kanjiro enclosed in a wooden box upon which his friend and equally important artist Munakata Shiko has painted an image of the bowl outside titled Go-Kowan (Honorable small bowl) and inside annotated: Kanjiro Sensei Saku (Made by Kanjiro), signed Munakata Shiko. It is 10 cm (4 inches) diameter and in excellent condition.
Kawai Kanjiro (1890-1966) was a true artist by nature, and together with Hamada Shoji, set a pattern of study for moder...

Antique Japanese stoneware kame (wide mouthed bowl) from Shigaraki kiln. Made using the local sandy clay from the bed of Lake Biwa, Shigaraki ware is identified by the embedded granules of feldspar. Mineral and ash glaze is dribbled and spattered over the surface leaving long, uneven drips. Depending on how the vessel is positioned during the firing process, if it falls over or if it is leaning on another piece, fragments of nearby pottery can stick, adding a story about it's journey insi...

Perhaps you have already tried to find one of the rare pieces of Ando Minoru. I guess you did not find it on the free market. Today you will find it here. A quite spectacular vase made in the form of a dark iron glazed Tokoname pot inside a shattered crucible by multi-talented Ando Minoru enclosed in the original signed wooden box.

Intentional or not Ando is not talking. The vase certainly exudes the Japanese aesthetic of lack of intention. The dark smooth iron clashes violently wit...

A sculpture of assembled ceramic shards by Yorigami Munemi in mottled moon colors enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Recreations, Futatsu no Hankyu Tai (Two hemispheres). It is 28 cm (11 inches) diameter, 10 cm (4 inches) tall and in fine condition.
Yorigami Munemi was born in Kyoto in 1944, but went to Tokyo to study gardening at the Tokyo University of Agriculture, graduating in 1967. Two years later he apprenticed in ceramics under Yagi Kazuo, founding member of the av...

Wild chrysanthemum rise along a brief poem on the cream-colored sides of these Tokkuri by Seifu Yohei enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Seizan Sakabin. They are 15 cm (just under six inches) tall and in excellent condition. There is a pre-firing imperfection in the rim of one of the Tokkuri.
Seifu Yohei I (1803-1861) founded the Seifu dynasty in Kyoto. He was born in powerful Kaga-kuni, modern day Kanazawa prefecture. After apprenticing with the second generation Dohac...