Lavender Kuriniki Hagi Chawan by Kaneta Masanao

Lavender clouds, rain on a foggy morning, snowy mountain landscapes, this is what comes to your mind when you look on this superb pale kurinuki Hagi tea bowl, made by Master and potter legend Kaneta Masanao, enclosed in the original signed wooden box.

Kurinuki is a technique carving and scooping out forms from a solid block of clay to produce boldly-cut forms, an approach the artist is famous for. Kaneta Masanao is an 8th generation Hagi potter. He likely needs no introduction, certainly one of the most well known names, he has been displayed both - nationally and internationally innumerable times. His pieces are in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum and Museum of Modern Art Brooklyn. He has been displayed at the Nihon Dento Kogei Ten and Nihon Togei Ten among many many others.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Kaneta Masanao started his career producing pieces on a potter’s wheel. However, in time he began to feel the constraints of the wheel and instead opted to sculpt the clay by hand in order to discover and convey its unique spirit.

He starts by repeatedly throwing a lump of clay on a wooden board and then uses a wooden modeling tool to coax it into different shapes, leaving ridges and hollows which give the piece its dramatic shape. The interior is then gouged out to the required thickness and the exterior coated in glaze, resulting in pieces imbued with a strong presence which deftly showcase the true character of Hagi clay. A free spirit who expertly combines Hagi traditions with his own original creativity, Kaneta Masanao is highly regarded both by ceramic experts and pottery collectors.

Size: 9,0 cm height x max.13,9 cm in diameter.