Kanjiro Kawai

Vase, stoneware three-color drip graze

Period

1961

Size

Length15.5×Width16.7×Height29cm

Uchigusuri (drip glaze) is a technique demonstrating Kawai’s bold style after the Second World War, a paint brush striking red, green, and black glaze on a plain material of rough clay produced in Shigaraki. This radical technique reminds us of action painting. Kawai’s creative fire and ambition is unflagging even in his later years.

Kanjiro Kawai

1890－1966

Born in Yasugi Town (present day Yasugi City), Shimane Prefecture. He studied ceramics at Tokyo Higher Technical School (now Tokyo Institute of Technology), where he met Shoji Hamada. Along with Soetsu Yanagi and others, he was active in the Mingei Movement. He made ceramics from his base in Gojozaka in Kyoto and from the postwar period bold artworks inspired by his interest in primitive arts sculpture.