A rustic fresh water jar fours in the Japanese Maccha Tea Ceremony by Nishoka Koju enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled E-Karatsu Mimitsuki Mizusashi. The work comes with a custom made black lacquered wooden lid, the coloration creating a dialog between the smooth black of the lid and the nearly black dashes of imagery on the ray-skin gray surface. It is 18.5 cm (7-1/2 inches) diameter, 16 cm (6-1/2 inches) tall and in excellent condition.
Nishioka Koju (1917-2006) was born in Saga prefecture, and after participating in kiln research began working in Karatsu style ceramics around 1950 in a kiln he built that was named by Koyama Fujio. To this kiln came Fujiwara Kei and Arakawa Toyozo, the latter from whom he received the name Koju. He always avoided the world of large scale exhibitions in favor of small personal spaces, always preferring the private exhibition. Despite this, his reputation was impeccable and he was rated as one of the most influential people in Japanese ceramics by Honoho Magazine. His work is contained in the Polk museum, the Cleveland Museum as well as many other important collections. He is one of the most highly valued of the Karatsu artists, and his recent passing will leave a hole hard to fill in the Japanese ceramic world.
