id: 538291 accession number: 2023.17 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2023.17 updated: 2025-02-14 13:30:02.401000 Lidded Sake Jar, 1989. Kawase Shinobu (Japanese, b. 1950). Porcelain with blue-green glaze; 16.5 x 21.6 cm (6 1/2 x 8 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund 2023.17 © Kawase Shinobu title: Lidded Sake Jar title in original language: 青磁酒会壺 series: series in original language: creation date: 1989 creation date earliest: 1989 creation date latest: 1989 current location: 235A Japanese creditline: Dudley P. Allen Fund copyright: © Kawase Shinobu --- culture: Japan, Shōwa period (1926–89) technique: Porcelain with blue-green glaze department: Japanese Art collection: Japanese Art type: Ceramic find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Kawase Shinobu (Japanese, b. 1950) - artist Many think of Kawase as Japan's outstanding celadon artist. In the course of his phenomenally precocious career, this eldest son has outshone both his distinguished father, Kawase Chikushun II, and his well-known uncle, Kawase Mitsuyuki, both of whom have had much longer careers and more varied oeuvres. Like his father, Kawase has sought to recreate a Chinese glaze, in his case Southern Song celadon. After graduating from high school and studying with his father for only a year, in 1969, he exhibited some Southern Sung-style underglaze blue-and-white and polychrome pieces, as well as a few celadons. He wanted to reproduce the powder green color of Southern Sung Lung-ch'üan celadon. One time, however, he fired too long. Taking for granted that such a piece would be a failure, he found, when he took the piece from the kiln, that it had a thick glaze that had fused with the body and looked like Southern Sung official kiln celadon (Kuan ware). Encouraged by this discovery, he made three visits to the National Palace Museum in Taipei in order to study more Southern Sung prototypes. Wisely, after first trying to imitate famous pieces exactly, he decided to try to preserve their spirit without slavishly copying them. Kawase's official career includes regular appearances at the Traditional Crafts New Works Tokyo Branch Exhibitions since 1969 and at the Japan Traditional Crafts Exhibitions since 1974. In 1977, at age twenty-seven, he became the youngest regular member ever of the Japan Crafts Society; and in 1981, at age thirty-one, he was the youngest potter to be awarded the Japan Ceramics Society prize. His regular exhibitions at two of the foremost Tokyo ceramics galleries are so successful that they sell out in the first hour. What makes Kawase's celadon so prized? First, it is extremely precise potting and perfectly uniform glazes. Second, its rich, bluish green color and glossy finish. Third, the delicacy of his pieces, which are thinner walled than their Southern Sung models. Fourth, the grace and variety of his shapes. He used to make a good deal of crackle celadon, but nowadays most of his work is plain. Until recently all of his work has been functional, but since he is no slave to tradition, it has become increasingly sculptural in quality. [From "Modern Japanese Ceramics in American Collections," Japan Society, 1993.] --- measurements: 16.5 x 21.6 cm (6 1/2 x 8 1/2 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Box title: 青磁酒会壺 translation: remark: inscription: Box signature: 忍 translation: remark: inscription: Box seal: 忍 translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Contemporary Calligraphy and Clay opening date: 2024-06-07T04:00:00 Contemporary Calligraphy and Clay. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7, 2024-June 15, 2025). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'Japanese Ceramics Today: Masterworks from the Kikuchi Collection. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (February 11-April 3, 1983); Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England (May 18-July 17, 1983).', 'opening_date': '1983-02-11T05:00:00Z'} * {'description': '10 X 10 Past And Present: Japanese Masters Of Ceramics. Joan B. Mirviss Ltd., Japanese Art at the Winter Show, Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY (January 20–29, 2023).', 'opening_date': '2023-01-20T05:00:00Z'} --- PROVENANCE (Joan B. Mirviss Ltd., Japanese Art, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: ?–2023 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2023– footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Japanese Ceramics Today: Masterworks from the Kikuchi Collection: Feb. 11-Apr. 3, 1983, Smithsonian Institution, Wash. D.C., May 18-July 17, 1983, Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution; London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 57, 60, 65, cat. no. 129–131, 152 url: Masami, Shioda. “Kawase Shinobu: Delicate Forms and Rich Blues.” Ceramics Art and Perception 81 (2010): pp. 3–7. page number: url: Kawase, Shinobu 川瀬忍. Kawase shinobu no seiji: Tensei kara shizukanaru ao e [川瀬忍の青磁: 天青から静かなる青へ= Celadon works by Kawase Shinobu]. Tokyo: Kikuchi bijutsu zaidan, 2011. page number: url: Kawase Shinobu: Sakutō 50nen no aida [川瀬忍 : 作陶50年の間 = Kawase Shinobu: fifty years of celadon making]. Tokyo: Musée Tomo, 2018. page number: url: --- IMAGES