INVESTMENT

As a potter, the very first thing I thought about when I first saw this piece was the amount of time investment in creating the piece. Obviously the first thing was the throwing of the form that was then gently pushed and paddled into a oval with pronounced ridges fore and aft. Allowing for just the right amount of drying to take place, the pattern was worked out around the form and the precise carving of the form took over, time though well spent based on the finished project though it must have been the better part of the potter's day.

 Beyond the potter in me, I am fascinated by the effect of the patterned carving that is brilliantly enhanced by the use of Kato Shinya's Oribe glaze that has created random areas of deep, rich green where glaze has built up at various points around the surface.  Flanked by the deeply carved repeat pattern the form and decoration function exceptionally well together and with each incremental move of the vase (or tsubo if you prefer) the viewer gets a very different perspective with the depth and dimensionality changing as well. The pot is finished off with a well carved/ tooled oval foot complete with the potter's mark and an impressed stamp accompanied by the wood box which has an exhibition label (No.40). 

As a final side note, there was a slightly larger vase of this exact form and surface from a large retrospective show of Kato Shinya's work in 1994 which is also featured briefly in a video segment on the potter produced for japanese television at about the same time. You can see more of this pot by Kato Shinya over on my Trocadero market-place webpage; 

https://www.trocadero.com/stores/albedo3studio/items/1463262/LARGE-HAND-CARVED-ORIBE-VASE-BY-KATO-SHINYA