Kakurezaki Ryuichi 隠崎隆一 b. 1950
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Born in Nagasaki, Kakurezaki Ryuichi 隠崎 隆一 (b. 1950) is a celebrated Bizen artist known for modern forms and restrained surfaces that reveal the varied character of Bizen clay. Bizen, in Okayama Prefecture, is one of Japan’s best-known pottery centers, home to generations of makers who have pushed the medium toward sculpture. Kakurezaki’s work exemplifies this sculptural approach.
His plate suggests a fallen leaf, perhaps a chestnut leaf, and reflects his sensitivity to the seasons. Its elongated, tapering form gives the ash glaze and exposed clay room to reveal the raw material’s inherent qualities.
Japanese functional ceramics have a particularly close relationship with the seasons. In Japan, nature is not simply observed from a distance: seasonal change is woven into food, poetry, gardens, flower arrangement, tea, and ceramics. A vessel can become a kind of seasonal landscape.
The colors of autumn leaves, for instance, can transform an object into an autumn scene. In episode 106 of The Tales of Ise, a man gazes at the Tatsuta River and marvels at its waters, seemingly dyed deep red by falling leaves:
「ちはやぶる神代も聞かず竜田川
からくれなゐに水くくるとは」
“Even in the age of the gods, who had heard of the Tatsuta River dyeing its waters deep red?”
The Kokinshū headnote (kotobagaki, 詞書)—a brief explanatory note preceding a poem—says the verse was composed in response to a screen painting of maple leaves flowing through the Tatsuta River. It offers a vivid example of how image, object, and word can come together to evoke autumn. Kakurezaki’s plate brings this seasonal sensibility to the table, recalling the form and color of fallen foliage.