Five Cranes Gallery features works by Mingei's founders Hamada Shoji, Kawai Kanjiro, and Munakata Shiko while reaching back to 19th century studio potters like Otagaki Rengetsu. We also explore the new directions taken by next-generation Mingei heirs like Shimaoka Tatsuzo, Hamada Shinsaku, Hamada Tomoo, Kawai Buichi, Euan Craig, and others. Even farther afield, Five Cranes highlights outstanding functional pieces by several of the foremost contemporary Japanese ceramic artists, including Goro Suzuki, Takeuchi Shingo, and others.

Otagaki Rengetsu,
Chawan

Hand-built chawan with a rare bluish glaze bearing a poem inscribed and signed by Rengetsu:

In the future
happiness
and long life --
two sprouting leaves
to grow a thousand years.

(Translation used with the kind permission of John Walker,
The Rengetsu Foundation Project)

Tomobako signed by Rengetsu, original linen cloth
(small amount of worm damage to the upper edge of the body of the box; lid with Rengetsu's signature is intact)

Size: 2.4H x 4 dia inches / 6.1H x 10.2 dia cm
Weight: 0.48 lb / 0.22 kg alone; 0.72 lb / 0.33 kg with tomobako

SOLD - thank you

Otagaki Rengetsu,Chawan

Otagaki Rengetsu,
Chawan