Tomobako (original signed wooden box)
Showa period
D 12 × 13 cm H 17 cm
This flat flower vase by Kanjiro KAWAI, a ceramic artist known as a central figure of the Japanese Mingei (Folk Craft) movement, exemplifies his distinctive artistic vision.
Set against a soft white glaze, the surface is decorated with flowing floral motifs in iron pigment and copper-red (cinnabar), evoking a sense of warmth and poetic simplicity. The asymmetrical form between the front and back strongly reflects Kawai’s deepening exploration of “form,” which became increasingly pronounced in his later years.
Kanjiro KAWAI（河井寛次郎）
1890 - 1966
Kanjirou Kawai was a Kyoto-based potter within the folk tradition of Japanese and Korean ceramics and a key figure in Mingei (Japanese folk art movement). He was a long-time friend of Shōji Hamada, Soetsu Yanagi, and Bernard Leach with whom he co-founded the Japan Folk Art Association in 1926. He refused all official honors, such as the designation of “Living National Treasures,” He often decorated his works with bold, semiabstract blossom motifs, which he painted freely in under-glaze cobalt blue, iron brown, and copper red.
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