Tall Bud Vase by Hiroshi Kikuchi

These bud vases were made at the Sannōgama kiln of Hiroshi Kikuchi, to the north of the ceramic town of Kasama.  Stripes appear on their surface as roots from a tree, and show handmade skill in their creation.

There are two versions with dark and beige uppers.

The vases are around 13cm in height, and 8cm wide.  They weigh around 240g.  As each is made by hand there are some variations between them.

About Hiroshi Kikuchi

A veteran ceramicist on the Kasama scene, Hiroshi Kikuchi is a distinctive presence in his work and in his person. At the Sannōgama kiln he operates to the north of Kasama with his family, he makes work that has a unique place in galleries and tables around Japan. After a period training in Kasama and elsewhere in the 1970s, Kikuchi established his own kiln in 1982. From here he has produced works with angularity and texture that reference a controlled form of the nature around him. In particular he has a line of work that he refers to as ‘Saideiji’, a portmanteau word containing characters for colour, mud like soil and ceramics. In this style he mixes slip with pigment, and has the blocks of textured colour appear alongside shapes in black glaze. The material in these boundaries references the ceramic clay in the hands of the potter himself.