Potter: Ohi Toshiro, 10th successor of the Ohi style

Approximate size: W4.9″ by H3.3″ or 11.5 by 8.5 cm

This is an ame-yu chawan or ceremonial tea bowl with Ohi’s characteristic amber glaze made by Ohi Toshiro (1927-), the tenth generation and current successor of the prestigious Chozaemon family. Ohi tea utensils have been associated with the world of the Japanese tea ceremony since the 17th century. The glazes are magnificent earth tones and black glazing is often applied as with Raku but the trademark – an amber glaze called ame-yu is the epitome of the style. By using special picks and tools, the Ohi master chips away moist clay until bowls or cups has taken form. This chawan by the current master is lightweight and perfectly represents what Ohi yaki or Ohi ware became famous for.

Toshiro was born in 1927 as the first son of Ohi Chozaemon IX. He graduated the Tokyo University of Arts in 1949 and then returned for a short time to the family kiln. He has since been professor at a number of prestigious Japanese institutions. He has been a consistent exhibitor with the Nitten National Exhibition and served as both judge and director there, as well as acting as judge for the Asahi Ceramics Exhibition.

The Chozaemon lineage started with Hodoan (1631-1712), apprentice to the fourth heir of the Raku family of potters. In 1666 he accompanied Senso Shoshitsu (1622-1697), the fourth heir of the Urasenke school of Japanese tea ceremony, to the city of Kanazawa, the capital of the Maeda clan’s province, Kaga (current Ishikawa prefecture). In the village of Ohi, the first Chozaemon established a kiln (taking Ohi as the family name henceforth), which still produces superior tea ceremony wares and since the Meiji Restoration, ceramics for everyday living, too.

Raku and Ohi wares are similar in that they are shaped and carved by hand and not thrown on a potter’s wheel. Ohi like Raku are made by a special hand-building technique known as ‘tezukune‘, a method of slab forming (distinct from coiling or pinching). In the tezukune technique, the potter presses a ball of clay into a thick disc and then raises the edges bit by bit to shape a bowl that fits comfortably into one’s cupped hands.

The 10th generation Toshiro Ohi was awarded the Japan Ceramics Society award in 1957. He was also granted the Art Academy Award of Japan, perhaps one of the most prestigious of all honers in this country in 1985. He has been actively exhibiting abroad since 1949, including North America, The former Soviet Union, most of Europe as well as in the Middle East. In 1983 a tea bowl made by Toshiro was given as a gift to the Emperor. Several works have since been added to the permanent collection of the Imperial Household Agency. He succeeded the previous generation and assumed the name of Ohi Chozaemon X in 1987.

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