Squat Vase with Ash Glaze

Artist

Kamoda Shoji (Japanese, 1933 – 1983)

Date

1960s-70s

Medium

Ash-glazed stoneware

Dimensions

Work : 8 1/2 x 11 x 11 in. (21.59 x 27.94 x 27.94 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of Maurice Kawashima

Object Number

1990.3.18

Label

The mottled surface of this squat vase was created when flakes of wood ash landed on its red-hot clay body inside the kiln, reacting with minerals in the clay to create a natural glaze. After studying with master Tomimoto Kenkichi at the Kyoto Municipal College of Art, Kamoda Shoji made a name for himself in the early 1960s with his superbly potted, sparsely decorated stonewares that were simultaneously traditional and yet thoroughly modern. Kamoda won several major awards in the late 1960s and early 70s and was on his way to becoming a star in the Japanese ceramics world when he died tragically of leukemia just shy of his fiftieth birthday.