Untitled

Description

Born in 1975, Yui Tsujimura is the son of master potter Shiro Tsujimura and older brother of Kai Tsujimura. Yui has undoubtedly been influenced by his family in terms of his artistic practice, visual language and overall approach to ceramic arts. Unlike his father and brother, Yui Tsujimura has developed his own visual style, focusing primarily on the use of a distinctive blue-green ashy glaze.

The simple shape and color of Tsujimura’s stoneware vase is typical of the sobriety of Japanese tea ceramics. The metal tube inside the jar is inspired by the bamboo vases used in tea gatherings, while the combination of green and mottled gray of the glaze is reminiscent of vegetal hues.

For this work, Tsujimura Yui used feldspar-rich clay from Shigaraki and Iga. The artist is inspired by the techniques and aesthetics of the unglazed stoneware of early medieval Sue. One of his trademarks is the use of the natural ashy glaze. The green and blue streaks on this piece are horizontal because the vessel was fired on its side. Ashes were blown onto it to create an organic, almost abstract pattern.

Yui Tsujimura is well known in Japan, but also internationally: the artist is notably present in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of New York, and has been exhibited twice in the museum: “A Beautiful Country: Yamato-e in Japanese Art”, in 2010 and “Contemporary Japanese Ceramics in Historical Context,” in 2018.