13th Jun, 2025 10:00
Fine Japanese Art
219
HAMADA SHOJI: A RARE AND SUPERB WHITE-SPLASHED RUSSET-GLAZED STONEWARE VASE
Sold for €6,500
including Buyer's Premium
By Hamada Shoji (1894-1978), unsigned
Japan, c. 1950-1970
Well potted with a rectangular body supported on a tapering foot, the long sides each of lozenge faceted form, the high angled shoulder surmounted by a short-waisted neck with thick square mouth. The roughly textured surface covered in a russet-iron wash and liberally splashed with russet and mottled white and bluish-gray glazes attractively pooling in beautiful drops.
HEIGHT 25.7 cm
Condition: Excellent condition with minimal wear.
Provenance: From a private collection in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Hamada Shoji (1894-1978) studied ceramics at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, then known as Tokyo Industrial College, with Kawai Kanjiro under Itaya Hazan. As the sole students in the school interested in becoming artist-potters, Hamada and the slightly elder Kawai soon became friends, touring the city in search of inspiration. Anchored in the Japanese Mingei movement created under the leadership of Soetsu Yanagi between 1910 and 1920, Hamada focused on the beauty of everyday pieces by settling in the traditional pottery village of Mashiko. He used local stoneware, which he turned or molded into vessels with concave or convex, faceted or raised walls and decorated with a ladle or brush. Shoji Hamada's reputation crosses borders, notably in France and England, where he built the first multi-chambered recumbent kiln of Asian type in the West with his long-time friend Bernard Leach. But it was in his native country that he achieved the greatest recognition, being named a Living National Treasure before his death in 1978.
Auction comparison:
Compare a closely related stoneware rectangular bottle vase by Hamada Shoji dated c. 1965, 22.9 cm high, at Bonhams, Fine Japanese Works of Art, 17 September 2013, New York, lot 3324 (sold for USD 7,500).
By Hamada Shoji (1894-1978), unsigned
Japan, c. 1950-1970
Well potted with a rectangular body supported on a tapering foot, the long sides each of lozenge faceted form, the high angled shoulder surmounted by a short-waisted neck with thick square mouth. The roughly textured surface covered in a russet-iron wash and liberally splashed with russet and mottled white and bluish-gray glazes attractively pooling in beautiful drops.
HEIGHT 25.7 cm
Condition: Excellent condition with minimal wear.
Provenance: From a private collection in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Hamada Shoji (1894-1978) studied ceramics at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, then known as Tokyo Industrial College, with Kawai Kanjiro under Itaya Hazan. As the sole students in the school interested in becoming artist-potters, Hamada and the slightly elder Kawai soon became friends, touring the city in search of inspiration. Anchored in the Japanese Mingei movement created under the leadership of Soetsu Yanagi between 1910 and 1920, Hamada focused on the beauty of everyday pieces by settling in the traditional pottery village of Mashiko. He used local stoneware, which he turned or molded into vessels with concave or convex, faceted or raised walls and decorated with a ladle or brush. Shoji Hamada's reputation crosses borders, notably in France and England, where he built the first multi-chambered recumbent kiln of Asian type in the West with his long-time friend Bernard Leach. But it was in his native country that he achieved the greatest recognition, being named a Living National Treasure before his death in 1978.
Auction comparison:
Compare a closely related stoneware rectangular bottle vase by Hamada Shoji dated c. 1965, 22.9 cm high, at Bonhams, Fine Japanese Works of Art, 17 September 2013, New York, lot 3324 (sold for USD 7,500).
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