Old Bizen Pottery Water Jar

Bizen ware was traditionally produced in and around the village of Imbe in Bizen province, from where it received its name. It is therefore also known as Imbe or Inbe ware. It has ties to Sue pottery from the Heian period in the 6th century, and made its appearance during the Kamakura period of the 14th century.

 

Bizen is characterized by significant hardness due to high temperature firing; its earthen-like, reddish-brown color; absence of glaze, although it may contain traces of molten ash resembling glaze; and markings resulting from wood-burning kiln firing. 

 

The clay found in Imbe is sticky and fine, with a high iron content and, traditionally, much organic matter that is unreceptive to glazing. 

For some potters this is an inadequate material, since it has weak characteristics such as high shrinkage and relatively low fire resistance.

 

Most Bizen ware is not coated with a glaze because of this shrinkage, since any applied glaze would peel off during the firing process.

Due to its low fire resistance it cannot withstand rapid high-temperature changes, so the firing has to be done gradually.

 

However, the soil also has beneficial properties, such as plasticity.

The high strength of Inbe clay causes it to retain its form, making it tough even without glaze

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Some Bizen pottery artists:

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Shiro Tsujimura (born 1947 in Gossei, Japan) is a Japanese contemporary ceramic artist New York Times commends his work with the following words: "For a look at some of the most expressive abstract painting around, check out the new ceramics by the Japanese artist Shiro Tsujimura at Koichi Yanagi.

Mr. Tsujimura, who was born in 1947 and trained in a Zen temple before becoming a potter, is self-taught, prolific and wide open to all kinds of traditional styles and forms, which he makes entirely his own". source: wikipedia

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Jun Isezaki, real name: Atsushi Isezaki,  born February 20, 1936 in Imbe, Bizen, Okayama Prefecture) is a Japanese potter and ceramic artist.[1] He was declared a Living National Treasure for the important intangible cultural property "ceramic production" in 2004. He is the second eldest son of the ceramic artist Yōzan Isezaki (1902–1961).

After Jun Isezaki graduated from Okayama University in 1959, he learned the craft of pottery from his father, who had been appointed the person for the preservation of Bizen ceramics by Okayama Prefecture. In 1961, together with his older brother Mitsuru, who is also a ceramic artist, he rebuilt the medieval pedestal tunnel kiln  Koyasan and used it primarily to produce traditional tea bowls. In 1966, he became a full member of the "Japanese Society for Arts and Crafts". From 1978 onwards, he taught at the special art department of Okayama University. In 1981, he was awarded the Kaneshige Tōyō Prize.

Jun Isezaki was named a Living National Treasure on September 2, 2004 for his Bizen ceramics. Most recently, he received the Okayama Prefecture Culture Prize in 2005.

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Artists honoured by the Okayama Prefectural government with the designation Intangible Cultural Property include Fujita Ryuho (1913–1973),

Kaneshige Toyo, Fujiwara Kei (1899–1983), Fujiwara Ken (1924–1977), Fujiwara Rakuzan (1910–1996), Mimura Tokei (1885–1956), Isezaki Yozan

(1902–1961),

Ishii Furo (1899–1964), Oae Jindo (1890–1954), Kaneshige Michiaki (1934–1995), Kaneshige Sozan (1909–1995), and Yamamoto Toshu (1906–1994).

Kaneshige Toyo, Fujiwara Kei and Yamamoto Toshu were in addition registered as Living National Treasures.

Other notable artists include Konishi Toko I (1899–1954), Matsuda Kazan I (1902–1948), Nishimura Shunko (1886–1953), and Suzuki Osai

(1908–1972). Contemporary artists include Hajime Kimura and Kosuke Kanishige, who specializes in the hidasuki technique, as well as Harada Shuroku, Mori Togaku, Abe Anjin, Nakamura Rokuro, and Kakurezaki Ryuichi.

A Bizen ware festival is held every year around Imbe Station.

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Fujiwara Yu was awarded the rank of Bearer of Important Intangible Cultural Assets (popularly called "Living National Treasure") by the Japanese government in 1980. He studied ceramics under the guidance of his father Fujiwara Kei (1899-1983) (see lot 112), who had achieved the same honorific designation ten years earlier.
In 1964 Fujiwara Yu taught ceramics at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and took part in the first World Crafts Council International Conference in New York. In Japan in 1968 he was included in an important exhibition organized by the Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art, "A New Generation of Contemporary Ceramics," to introduce potters under the age of fifty likely to become well-known for their work. In 1976 he exhibited with his father in a show that included traditional Bizen wares in "Poteries de Bizen anciennes et modernes: Collection et oeuvre de Fujiwara Kei and Fujiwara Yu," Musée Cernuschi, Paris. Source: Christie's 

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After the outbreak of the Ōnin War in 1467, the power of the Ashikaga Shogunate effectively collapsed, marking the start of the chaotic Sengoku period. In 1568, Oda Nobunaga entered Kyoto to install Ashikaga Yoshiaki as the 15th and ultimately final Ashikaga shōgun. This entrance marked the start of the Azuchi-Momoyama period.

Nobunaga overthrew Yoshiaki and dissolved the Ashikaga Shogunate in 1573, launching a war of conquest to politically unify Japan by force from his base in Azuchi. Nobunaga was forced to commit suicide in the Honnō-ji Incident in 1582. His successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi completed Nobunaga's campaign

of unification and enacted reforms to consolidate his rule, marking the end of the Sengoku period. Hideyoshi launched the Japanese invasions of Korea in 1592, but the invasion's failure damaged his prestige, and his young son and successor Toyotomi Hideyori was challenged by Tokugawa Ieyasu after Hideyoshi's death in 1598.

The Azuchi–Momoyama period ended with the Tokugawa victory at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 – unofficially establishing the Tokugawa Shogunate and beginning the Edo period. The Azuchi–Momoyama period encompassed the transition of Japanese society from the pre-modern to the early modern period. The Azuchi–Momoyama period is named after Nobunaga's Azuchi Castle and Hideyoshi's Momoyama Castle, and is also known as the Shokuhō period (Shokuhō jidai) in some Japanese texts, abridged from the surnames of the period's two leaders in on-yomi: Shoku for Oda plus Hō for Toyotomi.