Cylindrical Vase

Artist

Matsui Kosei (Japanese, 1927 – 2003)

Date

Ca. 1970s-80s

Medium

Stoneware

Dimensions

Work : 11 1/2 x 4 x 4 in. (29.21 x 10.16 x 10.16 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of Maurice Kawashima

Object Number

1990.3.35

Label

Neriage is the Japanese term for a technique in which potters wedge together different clays, then cut the clays across the grain to make ceramics with multi-color surface designs created by the combination of clays. The technique was brought to Japan from China and Korea sometime around the 17th century, but it never attracted much attention there until artist Matsui Kosei revived it and elevated it to new levels of complexity starting in the 1960s. The body of this vase was made with a mixture of two brown clays whose arrangement creates a design resembling lily pads on the surface of a pond or stones mortared together in a wall. Matsui's mastery of the difficult neriage technique earned him a designation as a Living National Treasure by the Japanese government in 1993.