Deep grooves, traces from the artist fingers, score the vertical sides of this proud Tea Bowl by Murakoshi Takuma covered in his signature combination of three glazes and enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Shunju Chawan.This piece was fired vertically in the kiln, allowing the ash to run like tears of joy down both inside and out.It is 12.5 x 12 x 8.5 cm (roughly 5 cm diameter, 3-1/2 inches) tall and in excellent condition, from his firing last autumn.
Murakoshi Takuma is one of those enigmas who simply lives to work with clay. He does not seek to make a living through pottery, but through his primal approach has earned a following which keeps his work in high demand. He was born in Aichi prefecture in 1954 and began his stroll down the pottery path in 1980 under the tutelage of Kyoto potter Umehara Takehira. Favoring very rough Shigaraki glaze, he established his own kiln in 1997 in the Kiyomizu pottery district of Kyoto, then moved to Nagaoka in 2002. Although eschewing the world of competitive exhibitions, he has been picked up by many of Japan’s preeminent galleries, including private exhibitions at the prestigious Kuroda Toen of Tokyo’s Ginza District.
