Japanese Showa Footed Black Red Lacquer Bowl or Box with Lid and Gold Decoration

A stunning Shigaraki ware pottery chawan tea bowl by famed Japanese master potter the 3rd Rakusai Takahashi. The bowl features a beautiful, unique natural organic ash glaze with wonderful shifts in colour and texture. Rakusai Takahashi III (1898-1976) is universally considered one of the most important Japanese potters of the 20th century. In 1964 he was named a human cultural treasure and bestowed a Shiga Prefectural Intangible Cultural Property. His work can be found in numerous collections and international museums including the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art, and the Brooklyn Museum to name a couple. Shigaraki Ware pottery comes from Shiga Prefecture, Japan. The kiln there is one of six ancient kilns in Japan (along with Echizen ware, Seto ware, Bizen ware, Tamba ware...

A rather spectacular piece in person with a wonderful glaze and color. Wonderfully designed with a good feel and heft to it. We believe this is from the Qing Dynasty but are simpl...

An exceptionally rare, wonderfully designed Chawan tea bowl by famed Japanese master woodblock printmaker/ artist Shiko Munakata (1903-1975) who is widely considered to be the most important Japanese visual artist of the 20th century and the Pablo Picasso of Japan. This hand-painted work clearly illustrates Munakata's whimsical side as it is of a Koma - a child's spinning top toy. Very few examples of Munakata's work in ceramics exist still today. The work is signed by Munakata on the base as well as the original wood protective storage box (his seal can also be seen faintly in the lower-left corner). The bowl has a small kintsugi or "golden joinery" repair - the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold - on the inside. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. Munakata who is often compared to Picasso was primarily associated with and a principal figure in both the Sosaku-Hanga (which stressed the artist as the sole creator ) and the Mingei (folk art) movements. His many accolades and awards include the "Prize of Excellence" at the Second International Print Exhibition in Lugano, Switzerland in 1952, and first prize at the São Paulo Bienal Exhibition in Brazil in 1955, followed by the Grand Prix Award at the Venice Biennale in 1956, and the Order of Cultural Merit, the highest honor in the arts by the Japanese government in 1970. In 1960 after returning from a year abroad exhibiting his work in the United States, the Horinji Temple in Kyoto bestowed upon him the honorary rank of “Hokkyo”. In 1962, he received the rank of “Hogan” from Nisseki Temple in Toyama prefecture. He also received a Medal of Honor in 1963 and the Asahi Shimbun culture prize in 1965. Munakata's work can be found in numerous international collections and museums including: The Britsih Museum, UK The Chicago Art Institute Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), NY The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), NY The Philadelphia Museum of Art The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), Washington DC Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis And his own museum The Munakata Shiko...

A wonderfully designed and glazed Japanese Mingei style Chawan tea ceremony bowl with ears by esteemed American born/ British potter Janet Leach, wife of f...

A Japanese red & black lacquer bowl from the early 20th century. Its frame is crafted from woven rattan fibres and covered in multiple layers of lac...

A Japanese red & black lacquer wooden bowl from the early 20th century. It is carved from a block of what is likely to be fruit wood. The bowl has aged beautifully over the years wit...

Early 17th century Negoro lacquer footed bowl, Edo period (1603-1868) round bowl with tripod cabriole style legs. Negoro lacquer (monk's lacquer in red ...

What can we say about this bowl? Perhaps we can start by describing the unique Japanese aesthetic concept of "Wabi-Sabi". In contrast to the western concept of beauty that is centere...