Ko Takenaka (Kyoto), Japanese studio pottery porcelain tea bowl, c1990

Size:  Bowl 6.9 cm across rim, 4 cm external depth. Box 8.5 cm  square, 7 cm tall.
Condition:  Excellent condition.  The bowl is as it was taken out of the kiln. There is a tiny small glazed over dent in the foot-rim and a speck of kiln dust on the foot - this is in the making of the bowl. The box is in excellent condition.

This gorgeous faceted tea bowl is made in white porcelain and fired under a blue green celadon glaze, typical of the style for which Ko Takenaka is famous. The bowl has the potter's incised signature on the base and the bowl has his signature and seal mark inside the lid.  The top of the box is also inscribed.

Takenaka Ko (born 1941) began his career in 1961 as an apprentice to Living National Treasure Kondo Yuzo, a Kyoto-based artist famous for his powerful style of underglaze painting. He first contributed to the Traditional Crafts Exhibition in 1966 and four years later built his own workshop in Yamashina in the eastern outskirts of Kyoto. He was the recipient of one of Japans most prestigious awards, the JCS award (Japanese Ceramics Society) in 1980.  He was designated an Intangible Cultural Property of Kyoto in 1995 (Mukei Bunkazai or prefectural Treasure). Works by this artist are held in the Victoria Albert Museum, and the British Museum as well as both the National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo and Kyoto among many others. For more on this influential artist see the catalog for the exhibition “Japanese Ceramics Today: Masterpieces from the Kukichi Collection” (Smithsonian Institute) or Winter Whites: The Porcelains of Takenaka Ko, by Suzanne Mitchell, New York, 2003. Also, Contemporary Clay, Japanese Ceramics for the New Century by Joe Earle, 2005.