A sculptural vase by Kako Katsumi enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Wakokutō (倭刻陶), created in 1996 and awarded at the 1997 Tanabe Museum of Art “Cha no Yu no Zokei Ten” Forms in Tea Exhibition. The vessel carries a quiet resonance with the ritual dōtaku bells of the Yayoi period—its faceted mass and incised band recalling an object bearing the trace of an unknown system of signs. The slightly tapering, faceted body and the subtly pitched “roof-like” top recall the iconic bell form—not literally, but structurally. Running through the body is a vertical band of pale celadon-green, incised with a dense array of geometric and abstracted motifs—triangular grids, concentric circles, linear hatchings—each impressed into the clay with deliberate variation. While ancient bells carry depictions of animals, agriculture, and ritual scenes, here these have been abstracted into a dense, non-representational lexicon—triangles, circles, and repeating marks that feel coded rather than descriptive. The glaze pools lightly within these impressions, softening their edges while preserving their tactile clarity. In contrast, the surrounding clay is left largely unglazed, its surface dry, granular, and subtly speckled, bearing the traces of firing in a gentle gradient that deepens to smoky, charcoal tones near the base. Measuring 20 x 14 x 32.5 cm (8 x 5-1/2 x 13 inches), Wakokuto stands not simply as a vase, but as a kind of contemporary relic—something that seems to carry memory, or at least the form of memory, without narrative.
Kako Katsumi was born in Kyoto in 1965, and graduated the ceramics department of Saga Art College in 1986. He was selected for the Japan Fine Arts Exhibition, the Asahi Ceramic Art Exhibition and the Kyoten held at the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art in 1988, followed in 1989 by the National Ceramic Art Exhibition and Mino International Ceramics Exhibition. He has since exhibited and or been selected/ awarded many times at these prestigious events. He established his kiln in Nishiwaki City in 1991. In 1994 he worked in Melbourne. Australia, and would create a second kiln in 2001. In 2004 he would be awarded the Prize of Excellence at the Tanabe Museum of Art Modern Tea Forms exhibition. In 2005 he established his current kiln in Sasayama, Hyogo prefecture. In 2009 his work was featured at the Kikuchi Biennale Exhibition and the following year was awarded at the 4th Contemporary Tea Bowls Exhibition, and in 2011 was selected for the influential Paramita Ceramic Exhibition. 2013 saw him in New York, and 2014 at the Museum of Ceramic Art in Hyogo (Kobe). Held in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art among others.
