The Nishimoto Gallery
Tucked away on a side road just off the main highway between Hiroshima City and the holy island of Miyajima is a quiet little pottery workshop.
The workshop is run by a father-and-son team. Every item they produce is hand made. The father, Nishimoto Eisen, works in the traditional style of the Jomon era, producing ceramics reminiscent of those of pre-historic Japan. Nishimoto Eisen's son, Nishimoto Naofumi, works in a contemporary style to produce ceramic vessels for everyday use as well as vases and more abstract ornamental pieces. Both potters have received several prizes for their ceramics in Japan and on the international stage.
Nishimoto Eisen
Born in Hiroshima Prefecture in 1928, Nishimoto Eisen has won numerous awards and prizes as well as imperial recognition for his ceramics spanning five decades of artistic endeavour.
Nishimoto Eisen specializes in producing fine large scale bowls and urns in the Jomon style. Typically, a piece in this style retains much of the natural colour of the clay from which it was fired. Each piece made in this style is beautifully symmetrical and overlaid with the "corded rope" pattern that is a feature of pottery from the Jomon period.
Jomon Corded Amphora-Style Vase
$5,750 (plus S&H)
Jomon Corded Yakubu Vase
$5,750 (plus S&H)
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Nishimoto Naofumi
Nishimoto Naofumi, born in 1965, has one acclaim as one of the younger generation of Japanese potters.
Naofumi-san has developed a decorative technique in which colours are applied one over the other reminiscent of the rich effect of the "twelve layered kimono", or "juni-hitoe worn by the ladies of the Heian court.
The effect is heightened in the pieces shown below by offsetting the coloured areas against a field of dappled grey.
Juni-hitoe teapot and two teacups.
Juni-hitoe Teapot
$345 (plus S&H)
| Juni-hitoe Tea Cup
$235 each (plus S&H)
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Juni-hitoe Coffee Mug - "Asa"
$125 (plus S&H)
Juni-hitoe Coffee Mug - "Hiru"
$125 (plus S&H)
Juni-hitoe Vase with Narrow Neck
$575 (plus S&H)
Juni-hitoe Vase with Broad Neck
$575 (plus S&H)
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Japanese Ceramics
Korean potters were sent to Japan in the sixteenth century and their activities led to the development of Japanese ceramics. The practice of the Tea Ceremony by the ruling classes stimulated the demand for aesthetically pleasing vessels. Sen-no Rikyu (1521-1591), a master of the art of the Tea Ceremony, favoured vessels produced in traditional medieval kilns.
In the Meiji era (1868-1912) modern methods of mass production threatened to displace traditional kilns.
The Japanese Folk Art Movement was set in motion by Yanagi Soetsu (1889-1961), who preserved many everyday pots of the Edo period that were being discarded in favour of cheap mass produced products. Yanagi, along with the potters Shoji Hamada (1894-1978), Kawai Kanjiro (1890-1966) and Yomimoto Kankichi (1866-1963) produced works in the style of "hand crafted art of ordinary people" or "minshuteki kougei" (commonly abbreviated to "mingei").
Even today, a time of greater emphasis on individual styles, traditional considerations of Japanese pottery continue to influence. The Tea Ceremony continues to be a source of inspiration.
Nowadays, gas and electric-fired kilns have largely replaced the traditional pine-fired climbing kiln (noboragama) and modern transportation means that potters are not limited to local clays.
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Japanese Values
I asked Naofumi-san how a small ceramic Japanese tea-cup could attract a higher market value than a coffee cup that was more than twice its size.
"The tea-cup has a deep significance stretching back over many centuries of Japanese culture," he said. "Every traditional vessel a Japanese potter makes is made by him in the spirit of that cultural heritage, starting with the smallest tea-cup. Everything else is valued according to the initial value ascribed to the tea-cup.
But coffee cups and items like that stand outside of Japanese tradition. It may actually take more work to make a coffee cup, and of course more clay, but no matter how beautiful a finished coffe cup might be, a Japanese tea-cup would always be valued more highly because of its deep spiritual significance and the place it holds in our culture."
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Nishimoto Eisen & Nishimoto Naofumi
Two Generations of Craftsmen
Catalogue of Works.
$20 (plus S&H)
Customer Guarantee
Purchase with confidence by Paypal and at no risk to yourself.
If you are not satisfied with your purchase simply return it in undamaged condition within 21 days of receipt for a prompt, full refund (minus shipping charges back to Japan).
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