Shimizu Uichi 清水 卯一 Japanese, 1926-2004
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The Living National Treasure Shimizu Uichi’s masterful glazes decorate the surfaces of his vessels. Taking on a mantle dating back to the early master of firing Chinese-style ceramics Ishiguro Munemaro (1893-1968), Shimizu Uichi continued to make use of iron-containing glazes and experimenting beyond them, mastering celadon, innovating Horai (straw ash glaze), and tenmoku while showing an unrestrained flair that he adopted in his later years. His stoneware vessels often showcase spirited finger-painted calligraphy featuring poetry that he writes himself.
Alongside Hayashi Yasuo, Shimizu Uichi was a part of the avant-garde ceramicist group “Shikokai 四耕社” in the Kyoto scene during the post-war period in the 1950s and 60s. The movement permitted potters to re-conceptualize pottery outside of industry traditions of Japanese ceramics, which had been dominated by the idea that lineage- rather, potters who were children of pottery masters- granted credibility to ceramicists. Shimizu’s frank boldness rippled through the ceramics world in Japan and created fresh aesthetic values, tenets, and precedents for what permitted a ceramic art object. Arguably the precursor to the well-known Sodeisha movement, the Shikokai movement questioned the traditions of Japanese ceramics. His awards speak for themselves: he has won Japan’s NITTEN exhibition, as well as placing second in the prestigious Japan Traditional Crafts Exhibition.