Potter: Miyashita Zenji

Approximate size: W2.8″ by H1.2″ or 7.2 by 3.0 cm

This is a seiji celadon guinomi or saké cup by world renowned artist Miyashita Zenji (1939-2012). As the eldest son of master potter and porcelain artist Miyashita Zenju (1901-1968), he went to Kyoto Municipal University of Arts and studied with no less than two Living National Treasures, namely Tomimoto Kenkichi and Kondo Yūzō. As an independent potter he worked with and was inspired by artists like Yagi Kazuo, Suzuki Osamu and Kiyomizu Kyūbey. Miyashita was affiliated with Seitōkai and the Nitten group (starting in 1964), exhibiting in their annual competitions (which he won 18 times!). His works have been included in exhibitions throughout the world and were acquired by nearly all the major museums in Japan, the US and Europe. It is no exaggeration to say he was one of the most famous potters of Japan.

Works by Miyashita Zenji are held in the Freer-Sackler, the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York , the Brooklyn Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and of course the National Museums of Modern Art both in Kyoto and Tokyo among a host of others.

Seiji or celadon is a glaze that usually turns to a jade green colour. The firing of the iron in the glaze produces its beautiful colour, which is brought out by reduction firings in a kiln at temperatures exceeding 1200°C. The origin of celadon stoneware lies in China where during the Tang Dynasty (±618 till ±907), production started and found a willing and wealthy client base amongst the elite and intellectuals. A little later during the Sung Dynasty (±960 till ±1279), the supply lines for the resources used in celadon wares became stable which caused export of celadon ceramics all through out eastern Asia and eventually to Japan around the 11th century.

Adding to its popularity was a widely believed superstition suggesting that a celadon dish would break or change colour if poisoned food were put into it.

Works by Miyashita Zenji are held in the following (non-exhaustive), list of public museum collections

His mature work was a modern embodiment of a classic Kyoto mode associated with the Heian period (which started in the year 794 and lasted until 1185). He applied delicate layers of colour — reminiscent of multilayered court robes or decorated papers made for inscribing poetry — using not over-glaze enamels or glazes but clay itself, dyed with mineral pigments. This technique became known as saidei (coloured-clay overlay). The saidei technique in Miyashita Zenji’s case meant the application of extremely thin layers of delicately gradated coloured clay in irregular bands to cover the surface of each sculptural vessel or form, transforming the surfaces into for instance; landscapes featuring distant hills, drifting clouds or rolling waves.

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