BLUES WITHIN BLUES

As difficult as it is for me to admit this, not everything wonderful pot has to be wood fired. The diversity, power and beauty of modern Japanese ceramics never ceases to amaze me and the various fields of polycrome enamels and sometsuke wares are certainly no exception. I was a major fan of the work of Ningen Kokuho Tokuda Yasokichi III (1933 - 2009) and his imaginative and inventive use of design and color and it is only fitting that the name and school linage carries on through Tokuda Yasokichi IV(b.1961). Daughter of  Ningen Kokuho Tokuda Yasokichi III (1933-2009) she suceeded to head of head of the male dominated family in 2009 taking on the name as the fourth generation. Though her work is certainly inspired and even partially directed by her father's works, her approach to the modern tradition of Kutani porcleain glaze painting has its own road to travel and is clearly created by a different hand and voice. This mizusashi is cloaked in a series of blues within blues that present an alluring illusion of everything from waterfalls to rich fabrics all on one pot while accentuating the vertical thrust of the form culminating in a lid and finely conceived knob. It is quite clear from the work of Tokuda Yasokichi IV that she has her own inspirations and ideals to a tradtion started by a Yasokichi nearly a full century ago.