RED, WHITE & BLUE (AND SOME GOLD) II

Illustrated is a large pure white porcelain tsubo with vivid areas of undeglaze blue and overglaze red and gold over a fine transparent clear glaze. Fine detail is added to the grapes and leaves using sgrafitto through the overglazes creating this fine Kyoto tsubo by Kondo Hiroshi. Kondo Hiroshi (b.1936), son of NIngen Kokuho,Kondo Yuzo and younger brother of Kondo Yutaka, focused on his father's patented style of sometsuke ware of which this piece is a wonderful example. Spending his life dedicated to this technique, Hiroshi create unique works influenced by his father and Tomimoto Kenkichi while carving out a style that can be seen as his own. Besides being a full time potter, Kondo Hiroshi went on to teach and even ended up teaching at several colleges/ universities in 1968 and again in 2006, he also went on to win the prestigious "Tomimoto Prize" in 1973. Just like the work of his father, Kondo Hiroshi uses his stoic, pure white porcelain forms as canvas that he adorns in a spontaneous and fluid design that captures the essence of not only sometsuke but also the heart and soul of Japanese sumi-e style painting and Kyo-yaki of a modern age.