Ceramic art in Japan around 1920

Ceramic art in Japan around 1920

Insights from Gurcharan Singh’s pottery collection

Ceramic art in Japan around 1920 as seen by an Indian student Dr. Takuya Kida

Professor, Musashino Art University

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Insights from Gurcharan Singh’s pottery collection

Ceramic art in Japan around 1920

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Introduction Gurcharan Singh (Sardar Gurcharan Singh Saheb, 1898-1995) studied commercial pottery techniques in Japan in the middle of the Taisho Period (1912-1926) and went on to become India’s best-known studio potter of the 20th century. Despite that history, he had largely been forgotten in Japan until very recently.

Volume 16 (contemporary ceramic art) of The Ceramic Art of the World, published over 50 years ago by Shogakukan in 1958, includes an article entitled “Toyo oyobi Minami Ajia no Toki” (Middle East and South Asian pottery) by Mikami Tsugio (1907-1987), in which he lists two contemporary India studio potters, Gurcharan Singh of Delhi and Hariharan of Bangalore1. There are probably still some faint memories of Hariharan as the Indian studio potter who studied ceramic art under Tomimoto Kenkichi (1886-1963) in the early years of Japan’s Showa Period (1926-1989), but Gurcharan Singh had been almost completely forgotten in Japan until Hashimoto Yorimitsu published Indo no Togeika Gurucharan Shin (Indian studio potter Gurcharan Singh), a considerable work which was serialized in four parts in the Japan Folk Crafts Association’s Mingei journal (No.747, March 2015 to No.750, June 2015).

Gurcharan Singh travelled to Japan in 1919 to study in the Department of Ceramics at Tokyo Higher Technical School (now Tokyo Institute of Technology) and was resident in Japan for approximately three years before returning to India in 1922. Close acquaintances made during his time in Japan by Singh included Yanagi Sõetsu (1889-1961), Bernard Leach (1887-1979) and Tomimoto Kenkichi. He also joined a group of hobbyists in the Garakuta-shu circle, became a member of the Theosophical Society and became close friends with architect Antonin Raymond (1888-1976), who was in Japan as part of the design staff working on the Imperial Hotel. These fascinating connections give further impetus to the study of Gurcharan Singh’s time in Japan.

In March 2017, the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh and Japan Foundation New Delhi, the Japan Foundation’s office in India, organized a seminar on the work of Gurcharan Singh, with the title “Gurcharan Singh, An Indian Potter in Japan” (Figure 1).

Singh had donated his personal collection of several hundred ceramic works to the Government Museum and Art Gallery, and it was decided to make a survey of the collection in association with the seminar.

Chandigarh in northern India is a core city that serves as the state capital of both Haryana and Punjab. It

Fig. 1. Photographed at Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh in March 2017. From right: Brij Tankha (University of Delhi), Kikuchi Yuko (University of the Arts London), Kida Takuya (the author), Miyamoto Kaoru (Japan Foundation New Delhi), Noguchi Kõsuke (Japan Foundation New Delhi).

Photography: Bryan Solomon.

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Insights from Gurcharan Singh’s pottery collection

Fig. 2. F Southwest facade of the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh (front view).

Photographed March 2017 (Architect: Le Corbusier, 1968).

is well known worldwide for being based on a master plan designed

by Le Corbusier (1887-1965). Construction started in the 1950s, and throughout the city there are buildings designed by the architect himself. The Chandigarh Capitol Complex, including the Palace of Assembly or Legislative Assembly, the Secretariat and the High Court, is particularly noteworthy, and was inscribed in UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2016 as part of The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement. The Government Museum and Art Gallery building was not part of the listing, but it is also a Le Corbusier design, with an exterior resembling his National Museum of Western Art in Ueno, Tokyo (Figure 2). Designed as a futuristic city for a population of 500,000, Chandigarh was divided into a regular grid of 46 blocks, called sectors, each of which was 800m x 1200m in size, with schools, shops, and other facilities located so that residents could meet their daily needs within a ten-minute walk. The Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh is situated in Sector 10, looking very much like a red-brick version of the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo.

The Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh now holds Singh’s collection, which includes ceramics from Japan, Korea and China as well as from Britain, Germany, France and other countries. Each is marked by an accession number consisting of a letter and number, written underneath with a black marker, probably when Singh acquired the piece. The letter indicates the country, with J for Japan, K for Korea.

C for China, and so on. While it is possible that Singh added Japanese and Korean pottery to his collection after the time he spent based in Japan, it is known that when he returned to India in 1922, his luggage included seven boxes full of pottery that he had collected during his studies. Although he had only been a student, it seems likely that he

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took home a significant volume of pottery as a memento of his time in Japan.2 For the current survey of the Singh Collection, the authors were joined by Brij Tankha (University of Delhi) and Kikuchi Yuko (University of the Arts London). Over a period of four days, we worked with curatorial staff from the Government Museum and Art Gallery to pick up and carefully scrutinise over a hundred works, one at a time, using the number inscribed on the bottom using a black marker to identify data in a ledger (Figure 3). However, none of the works had its original wooden box, which would have provided valuable hints as to basic information and provenance. Consequently, it was difficult to identify the artist and the date for a large proportion of the works.

Generally speaking, small works make up much of the Japanese pottery in the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh’s Singh collection. The collection centred on vessels for everyday use, such as plates and bowls, and most of the ceramics were of a type that made it difficult to determine where they had been produced. Nevertheless, several factors made the collection fascinating: it included works that demonstrated some of the research interests of contemporary Japanese potters, particularly at the Tokyo Higher Technical School Department of Ceramics where Singh was a student; works that mark his friendship with people such as Yanagi Sõetsu and Tomimoto Kenkichi; and works that indicate pastimes indulged in as part of the Garakuta-shu circle of hobbyists. That is to say, in addition to being a straightforward reflection of Singh’s study of pottery techniques, which was the objective of his visit to Japan, it plainly reflects Singh’s situation at the time as he sought out his own course while mixing with Yanagi Sõetsu and others in the art circles associated with Shirakaba magazine and the hobbyists of the Garakuta-shu circle. In this sense, Singh’s pottery collection is interesting as a record of Japan’s pottery world in the early 20th century seen through the eyes of an Indian student visiting Japan 100 years ago, and also as a record of what interested Singh during his time as a student in Japan and of the memories of the people he met and befriended in Japan. Consequently, this paper aims to use the Singh Collection in the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh to explore the situation of Japanese pottery circles in and around 1920, as seen by Singh.

Fig. 3. At work in a storage room at the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh.

Photographed March 2017.

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Insights from Gurcharan Singh’s pottery collection

Gurcharan Singh in the Tokyo Higher Technical School Department of Ceramics Gurcharan Singh studied geology at the Prince of Wales College in the Kashmir region of India. After graduating in 1918, he joined Delhi Potteries, which was run by Ram Singh (Sardar Ram Singh Kabuli), a friend of Singh’s father.3 Delhi Potteries manufactured tiles and bricks.

Singh spent about a year there, learning the basic techniques of commercial pottery, and then set off to Japan in the summer of 1919 to learn pottery techniques at the Tokyo Higher Technical School in order to explore the potential for expansion of the potteries business.4 The Tokyo Higher Technical School was a three-year technical college, with its origin in the Tokyo Vocational School, founded in 1881. It was located in Kuramae during the period when Singh attended. The school’s educational focus was on practice rather than on theory, and it aimed to contribute to private enterprise by nurturing people with the potential to become works managers or foremen. Departments included dyeing, ceramics, applied chemistry, and electrical engineering. The school was also active in accepting students from other Asian countries. Its second principal was Tejima Seiichi (1850-1918), who headed the school for about a quarter century from 1890 to 1916. Tejima was concerned for the situation of neighbouring Asian countries still mired in poverty as a result of being late to develop factory-based industry, and in 1901 he established elective courses that enabled students from China, Korea, India and elsewhere to study for up to two years. He then actively recruited students for these courses.5 Singh was an elective student in the Department of Ceramics from 1920, and his photo can be seen in the April 1921 graduation album, captioned “G.C. Singh” in Japanese script.6 The Department of Ceramics that Singh enrolled in at the Tokyo Higher Technical School had been established in 1884 by the German chemist Gottfried Wagener (1831-92), who had made a major contribution to the modernization of ceramics technology in Japan. It gained a strong reputation as a top-level ceramics school in Japan, and its graduates were employed by Potteries, Industrial Research Institutes and Technical High Schools throughout the country. Statistics for 1928, a little after Singh’s time, show that Japan accounted for a 40.5% share of Asian exports of ceramics, and ranked third globally, with a 13.5% share (34.6 million yen by value), trailing only first-place Germany (24.4%) and the United Kingdom (23.3%).7 At that time, the ceramics industry was one of Japan’s star exporters. Taking up the task of earning foreign currency, it actively introduced Western pottery manufacturing technology and developed new materials, attempting to expand production of Western

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tableware for export to the markets of the West. At the front line of that effort were the graduates of the Tokyo Higher Technical School’s Department of Ceramics.

In 1920, when Singh was at the Tokyo Higher Technical School Department of Ceramics, the department was headed by Wagener’s pupil Hirano Kõsuke (1871-1947), and its teaching staff included Kondõ Seiji, Shibata Rihachi, Kanashima Shigeta and Enomoto Shúji.8 However, in 1917, Hirano Kõsuke had also been appointed head of the Department of Ceramics at the South Manchurian Railway Central Research Laboratory, and had already moved to Dalian before Singh arrived, which meant that his position as head of Department of Ceramics at the Tokyo Higher Technical School was only nominal.9 At that time, the department in Tokyo was actively working on ironstone china for Western tableware, majolica, slip casting techniques and improvements to coal-fired test kilns and rotary cement kilns, together with porcelain insulation performance testing, fireclay property testing and research into glazes, etc.10 The Singh Collection includes the Majolica Decorative Plate (Girl and Birds) (1916, Figure 4) has a stamped impression of a five-petal flower resembling a cherry blossom surrounding a two-character inscription (“高工”), indicating that it was produced at the Tokyo Higher Technical School. Hirano Kõsuke, who had been an assistant professor at the school until taking over as principal following the death of Wagener in 1893, worked on majolica techniques after returning from Germany (where he had studied for three years from 1899). Majolica is tin-glazed pottery that can be fired in a low fire kiln using technology that developed in Italy over the renaissance period. Its most outstanding characteristic is the use of brightly coloured translucent glazes that enable painterly decoration. There was growing demand in Western markets for majolica ware as decorative ware for everyday use, so researchers had high expectations that producing majolica in Japan, where labour costs were low, for export to Western markets would lead to export growth.11 Hirano Kõsuke’s collection, now held by the museum in the Tokyo Institute of Technology’s Centennial Hall, includes items such as a flower-patterned New Majolica Bowl (1903) by Itaya Hazan (1872-1963), who had joined the Tokyo Higher Technical School as a part-time lecturer in 1903, and a brightly-coloured majolica decorative plate featuring a rustic village scene, New Majolica Decorative Plate (1905). These items suggest that by the middle of the first decade of the 1900s, the ability to produce majolica with bright, translucent colours

Fig. 4. Tokyo Higher Technical School, manuf., Majolica Decorative Plate (Girl and Birds), 1916, Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, Gift of Gurcharan Singh (J10).

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Insights from Gurcharan Singh’s pottery collection

had already been achieved. The upper part of Majolica Decorative Plate (Girl and Birds) in the Singh Collection has an inscription “大正五年容 煉懇親会紀念” or “大正五年窯煉懇親会紀念” (Commemorating the 1916 Yoren Social Event). The exact nature of this social event is obscure, but it is known that in 1916 the Tokyo Higher Technical School held many commemorative events and alumni events to mark its anniversary, so it is thought likely that the plate was produced as a commemorative item for people involved in ceramics who had a connection to the school.12

Fig. 5. Creator unknown, Underglaze Covered Dish with Flower Motif, c.191020, Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, Gift of Gurcharan Singh (J37).

The Singh collection includes a number of underglaze items, and underglaze was one of the areas of interest for Japanese ceramics researchers at the time. Underglaze involves applying pigments or other materials to decorate the clay before glazing and high firing.

The technique enables light coloured decoration with neutral colours, and it was employed in the production of large amounts of tableware towards the end of the 19th century by Royal Copenhagen in Denmark and Lockwood in America. In Japan, there was substantial research into the technique, with the aim of producing tableware for Western markets. Both Wagener, who laid the foundations for the Tokyo Higher Technical School Department of Ceramics, and Hirano Kõsuke and his colleagues were involved in underglaze research. When lushly-coloured underglaze ware with the look of a fresh Japanese-style painting (nihonga) was eventually perfected, it was given the name Asahi ware (or initially Azuma ware) and produced in the school’s own factory. Underglaze Covered Dish with Flower Motif (Figure 5) is an underglaze piece finished with a matt glaze surface, but its main characteristic is the seigaiha pattern incised over the whole piece as a ground pattern.

This underglaze technique, called hoko-saiji, was developed

by Itaya Hazan, who had been a part-time lecturer in the Tokyo Higher Technical School Department of Ceramics, and who drew upon his experience of studying woodcarving at the Tokyo Fine Arts School (now part of Tokyo University of the Arts) to cut ground patterns into the surface of many of his ceramic works. It is thought likely that this item with its seigaiha ground pattern and matte glaze finish was created with deliberate reference to Hazan’s hoko-saiji work. Itaya Hazan was a part-time lecturer at the school from 1903 to 1913, but by the time Singh attended the school he had already stopped lecturing and was concentrating on his own ceramic art. Consequently, Singh was not taught directly by Itaya Hazan, but the fact that this sort of underglaze work is included in the collection implies that Singh was interested in Hazan’s hoko-saiji works.

Ceramic art in Japan around 1920

The Underglaze Flower Motif Dish (approx. 1910-20, Figure 6) in the Singh Collection uses a light navy-blue underglaze to draw what appears to be either a collar or a curl like that of a mizubasho (Asian skunk cabbage) flower. It also has a slight relief carving that allows the glaze to pool, creating beautiful shading. That effect makes the whole motif more vibrant, and the result is an exquisite work. On the inside of the foot is a distorted stamp of a single character (陶) indicating that this was a trial piece produced by the Kyoto City Ceramic Research Institute (established by Kyoto City in 1896, and nationalized under the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce in 1919). The Singh Collection also has a small octagonal underglaze bowl with a similar Kyoto City Ceramic Research Institute mark (Figure 7). Trial pieces produced by the institute were basically never sold as commercial products, so it is most likely that Singh obtained these pieces via someone associated with the institute.

Gurcharan Singh’s raku ware Gurcharan Singh’s pottery collection includes a variety of types of pottery. In direct contrast to the items described above that were produced by ceramic researchers using Japan’s most advanced ceramic technology, the collection also has pieces produced by amateurs that would not normally be housed in a museum. One of the unique characteristics of this collection is its inclusion of raku ware made by hobbyists.

In 1920, Singh went along with renowned collector of memorabilia Awashima Kangetsu (1859-1926) to visit Mita Heibonji (Mita Rinzo, 1876-1960) and join the Garakutashu circle.13 The “shu” in the Garakuta-shu circle normally indicates some sort of sect or religion, but Garakuta-shu was actually a circle of people with a shared interest in collecting. A December 1920 photograph showing Singh with Mita Heibonji, Antonin Raymond and others wearing Fig. 6. Kyoto City Ceramic Research Institute, manuf., Underglaze Flower Motif Dish, c1910-20, Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, Gift of Gurcharan Singh (J3).

Fig. 7. Kyoto City Ceramic Research Institute, manuf., Octagonal Dish with Motif of Fig Leaves, c1910-1920, Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, Gift of Gurcharan Singh (J4).

Fig. 8. From left: Oguri Kúgen, Gurcharan Singh, Awashima Kangetsu, Antonin Raymond, Mita Heibonji, 25 December, 1920.

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Fig. 9. Hirose Riichi (Bonnõ-ji), Raku ware Ornament in Shape of Bronze Mirror, c.

1920, Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, Gift of Gurcharan Singh (J52).

turbans to mimic Singh’s attire gives a glance at one of the circle’s activities (Figure 8). Mita Heibonji lost his hearing after a childhood injury, and then lived off his father’s legacy, becoming a dilettante who spent most of his time reading books. In 1919, he established the Garakutashu circle with like-minded friends who had an interest in collecting some sort of “garakuta” (junk). The circle had its own magazine, entitled Shumi to Heibon (Hobbies and Ordinary Stuff), the first edition of which was published in August 1920.14 The Garakuta-shu circle had about 30 members, including Matsudaira Yasutaka (1867-1930), the 18th head of a feudal lord (daimyo) family; collector of antiquarian books Saitõ Shõzõ (1887-1961); local historian Tanaka Ryokkõ (1891-1969) and Americanborn anthropologist and collector of indigenous folk toys Frederick Starr (1858-1933). Members were given names derived from mountains and temples by Mita Heibonji. Gurcharan Singh was the 13th member, and was named “Shúryú-zan Shishi-bonsatsu GCSingh” (鷲龍山獅子梵刹 ヂシシング, or Eagle-dragon-mountain Lion-temple GCSingh). Members of the Garakuta-shu circle were each expected to decide on a theme for their collecting activities, and Singh’s role was to collect eagles, dragons and lions.15 It is unclear whether Singh had any personal interest in eagles, dragons and lions, so his theme may have been chosen in respect of his name within the circle.

The Singh Collection includes amateur raku ware made by members of the Garakuta-shu circle. Architect Antonin Raymond recollected the members exchanging their works after sumi-e ink painting class held by the circle16, and it is possible that they similarly exchanged their raku ware works after an introductory pottery class or some such activity. For instance, the collection has a raku ware ornament (or perhaps a lid for an incense container) with a shape resembling a bronze mirror, coloured in blue, yellow, and green, and having relief-carved figures of a stork, a pine tree, a horse and a woodcutter, but the carving and painting are both crudely executed, and it is obvious at first sight that this is an amateur effort. However, on the underside is a label marked “凡能寺” (Bonnõ-ji), which identifies it as the work of Garakuta-shu member Hirose Riichi, whose temple-name was “Bonnõ-ji” (Figure 9). Another article in the Singh Collection looks at first like ancient earthenware, but the form and patterns are unlikely to belong to anything so old,17 and it is marked in ink on the bottom as “大正九年福来寺寄贈” (1920, Gift of Fukuraiji), indicating that it was probably the work of Sugiyama Yúnosuke, whose temple-name was Fukuraiji (Figure 10).

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This amateur raku ware illustrates Singh’s involvement with the Garakuta-shu circle, and it also provides a fascinating insight into the craze for raku ware around the end of the Meiji and beginning of the Taisho Periods (Meiji came to an end in 1912. Taisho began the same year).

The presence of raku ware provides a growing reminder of the simple red and black raku tea bowls produced by Chõjirõ to reflect the aesthetics of Sen no Rikyú’s wabicha tea ceremony, or of Hon’ami Kõetsu’s raku tea bowls, but raku ware was by no means restricted to tea bowls for matcha (powdered green tea). The raku ware category includes many different forms, including dishes, bowls, and ornaments. In the widest sense, raku ware can be a simple hand-shaped pot formed without a potter’s wheel, fired unglazed, and then low-fired at about 750-800°C after applying glaze or painting. As soon as the glazes have melted, the potter quickly removes the pots from the kiln to cool them rapidly. As such, raku is simply a general name for low-fire pottery.18 There was a small craze for raku ware in the 1910s.

Raku can be fired in a simple kiln, so there is no need for a commercial high-temperature kiln. During this period, making raku pottery was often used as outdoor entertainment, firing pots when you gather with friends to see the cherry blossom. Many different types of people enjoyed the ease of the improvised process. One of them was Bernard Leach, who had been working on copperplate engraving until he joined in an improvised rake ware session in February 1911, held in association with cherry blossom viewing. That first attempt to make raku ware woke Leach up to the potential of pottery, and in October of the same year, he visited Urano Kenya (1851-1923, the sixth Ogata Kenzan; Figure 11) with Tomimoto Kenkichi as interpreter, and arranged to properly learn the skills of a potter from Urano. It is said to have been Awashima Kangetsu who introduced Leach to Kenzan.19 The young Tomimoto had recently returned from Britain, where he had been studying, and was trying to make a career as a designer, but without any sign of success. Like Leach, he had sensed great potential in raku ware, and would be increasingly drawn into ceramic art. Leach was able to work in Kenzan’s studio, learning the basic techniques directly, but Tomimoto lived in Nara, and his experience was less

Fig. 10. Sugiyama Yúnosuke (probably), Unglazed Raku Ware Bottle with Handle, c.

1920, Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, Gift of Gurcharan Singh (J1).

Fig. 11. Ogata Kenzan VI (Urano Kenya) Kõchi Ware Kõgõ Incense Box with Rooster Motif, 1919, Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, Gift of Gurcharan Singh (J18).

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direct, meaning that his eventual entry to the world of the potter was largely through independent study.

Tomimoto Kenkichi had graduated in design from the Tokyo Fine Arts School (now part of Tokyo University of the Arts), but then spent a self-funded year and a half in the United Kingdom before returning to Japan in June 1910. Back in Japan, Tomimoto exhibited his patterned woodblock prints (drawn, engraved, and printed by himself) and some of his raku ware at venues such as group exhibitions organized by the publisher of Bijutsu Shinpo or by Shirakaba magazine as he explored his potential as a designer. Tomimoto had gained a deep appreciation of William Morris during his stay in England, and he wrote an article on the story of William Morris that was published in February and March 1912 issues of Bijutsu Shinpo. Tanimoto admired Morris for pioneering the way forward for arts and crafts and identified with Morris’s idea of acknowledging the beauty of crafts and their ability to communicate the creator’s individuality, and of giving craft producers credit to the same extent as that given to painters and printmakers. Tomimoto was also encouraged by Leach, who suggested that he set up a shop like the one Morris had established.20 While cherishing his admiration for Morris, Tomimoto said, “I associate my life with patterns, to the same degree as I do with paintings or sculptures [...] It annoys me to see disdain for a craft so close to everyday life,”21 demonstrating his commitment to putting as much of himself into creating craftworks as a painter does into creating paintings.

Later, in 1914, Tomimoto married Otake Kazue (Kõkichi), who was one of the new women added to the staff of the feminist literary magazine Seito (Bluestocking). He set up a combined home and workshop near his birthplace in Nara Prefecture, and started producing ceramics.

Kazue was reluctant to leave Tokyo, but Tomimoto convinced her to join him in the countryside, explaining that “Here, more than anywhere, is the place where we can build a new home for the rest of our lives, collaborating and gaining a good understanding of each other. With the deepest commitment, we can create beautiful patterns without tiring of them. And we can follow the true and proper path for humanity.”22 This stance demonstrates the determination with which Kenkichi and Kazue began their life together in Nara, a determination to aim for a utopia that combined both their interests and their personal needs, integrating life with art by making pottery their life work in addition to enabling each member of the family to seek out his or her own happiness without being constrained by conventional customs or family systems.

In November 1921, Gurcharan Singh, together with Yanagi Sõetsu and his wife, Yanagi Kaneko, visited Tomimoto Kenkichi at his home in the

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town of Ando in Nara Prefecture, with the visit timed for the unloading of Tomimoto’s kiln. Singh’s Pottery in India (1979) describes some of his recollections of that visit, describing an octagonal jar that Singh took an instant liking to as soon as it came out of the kiln. Singh pleaded with Tomimoto to sell him the pot, but Tomimoto refused on the basis that it was a household treasure. Then, when Tomimoto’s wife, Kazue, expressed a desire for Singh’s Kashmiri scarf, Singh turned her down, saying that it was a present from his mother. Later, when the time came for Singh to leave Japan and return to India, they exchanged farewell presents. There was no pre-arrangement, but they ended up exchanging the octagonal jar for the Kashmiri shawl.23 For a household treasure, Tomimoto Kenkichi’s Octagonal Ceramic Box with Leaf Motif (Figure 12) in the Singh Collection at the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh is a rather insignificant piece. It pains me to see that part of it is damaged, but the gosu-pigment pattern of a leaf on the lid is drawn in Tomimoto’s characteristic style. On the side, the year of manufacture, 1921, is written using the Western date system, which is quite unusual. Generally speaking, most of Tomimoto’s works from his Yamato Period, when he was based in Nara, are more understated and more down-to-earth than those of later periods when he began to use enamels and gold and silver colours. Whatever the period, Tomimoto’s painting is of a different nature to that of the minute and elaborate brushwork of professional painters at a commercial pottery. When painting patterns that are his own design, the touch of his brush is characteristically generous and conveys intonation or inflection, communicating the joy and liveliness of painting by hand. From the pattern of a leaf that he painted on the top of the lid and the lattice motif lines that he drew on the sides of the box, you can almost sense how he was breathing at the time he took up the brush. Tomimoto’s involvement with pottery began the day that he experimented with raku ware. This octagonal ceramic box attests to that origin.

It was not until 1927 that the Teiten and Kokuten exhibitions eventually added craft categories. In the Taisho period (1912-26) when Singh came to Japan, there were no major competitive exhibitions for crafts apart from the Nõten, which was the Annual Exhibition of The Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, designed to promote design and applied arts. Consequently, there were no open-entry exhibitions covering crafts arts. In these circumstances, Tomimoto Kenkichi, Tsuda Seifú (1880-1978), Fujii Tatsukichi (1881-1964) and others decided to take action to counter the excessive focus on technical techniques

Fig. 12. Tomimoto Kenkichi, Octagonal Ceramic Box with Leaf Motif, 1921, Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, Gift of Gurcharan Singh (J35).

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Insights from Gurcharan Singh’s pottery collection

late in the Meiji Period (1868-1912), when objects were being created solely for exhibit at international expositions. They organized activities such as a group exhibition for crafts with good sense, and attracted attention, including being called the post-impressionists of craft arts.24 In the 1910s, if you created crafts as an amateur, nobody would try to interfere. Theoretical underpinnings for amateur art were proposed, including the idea that crafts created as part of your daily life can be original, creative art, and the idea that the amateurish and unpolished is an expression of creativity.25 As someone who had never been schooled in ceramics technology and did not come from a lineage of potters, Tomimoto Kenkichi was very much an amateur. Setting up a small studio and starting out by doing everything by himself was a decision that fitted well into the atmosphere at the beginning of the Taisho Period early in the 1910s. This style was very distant from that of the ceramics produced by ceramicists associated with the Tokyo Higher Technical School, and from that of the ceramics made by potters in the traditional producing areas.

Most of Tomimoto Kenkichi’s works from the Taisho Period seem rather plain at first glance, but they have a relaxed style unimpeded by conventions, which makes them a good example of the amateur art espoused by intellectuals of the Taisho period.

At the Tokyo Higher Technical School, Gurcharan Singh learned ceramic techniques, but the raku ware—free and unimpeded by convention—made by his friends in the Garakuta-shu circle, and the contact with Tomimoto Kenkichi, who lived in the countryside and produced artistically-relevant work at a small workshop of his own, were both formative experiences of great significance for his future career as a potter.

Gurcharan Singh and Joseon pottery The Gurcharan Singh Korean ceramics collection has about 20 items in total, and about half of them are considered to be artefacts excavated from ruins or graves, including a roof end tile (Figure 13) and serving table (Figure 14) from the Silla Period (57 BCE–935 CE). The other half are white or blue-and-white porcelain jars, water droppers, and other items of Joseon pottery (Figure 15, Figure 16) from late in the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). This Joseon pottery bears witness to the fact that Singh was in contact with, and shared aesthetic values with, circles that involved Yanagi Sõetsu, who went on to lead the Mingei movement.

In the summer of 1920, partway through his time in Japan, Singh made a trip to Korea, touring around the peninsula and visiting not

Ceramic art in Japan around 1920

Fig. 13. Roof End Tile with Lotus Flower Motif, 8th century (Silla Period), Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, Gift of Gurcharan Singh (K1).

Fig. 14. Serving Table, 6th century (Silla Period), Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, Gift of Gurcharan Singh (K5).

Fig. 15. White Porcelain Jar, 19th century (Joseon Dynasty), Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, Gift of Gurcharan Singh (K18).

Fig. 16. Blue-and-White Porcelain Jar, 19th century (Joseon Dynasty), Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, Gift of Gurcharan Singh (K17).

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Insights from Gurcharan Singh’s pottery collection

just Gyeongseong (present-day Seoul), but also Kaesong, which had prospered as the royal capital in the Goryeo period (918-1392), Pyongyang and Mount Kumgang, which was a popular tourist destination noted for its scenery.26 The Joseon pottery in the Singh collection is thought to be pottery that he bought during this visit to the Korean peninsula. Singh’s visit to Korea in 1920 took place just before a sudden growth of interest in Joseon pottery occurred in Japan, so the inclusion of Joseon pottery in the collection points to Singh having been one of the earliest to recognize the beauty of this pottery and one of the first to collect it.

Fig. 17. Asakawa Takumi and Gurcharan Singh, 1920.

Descriptions relating to Gurcharan Singh’s trip to Korea are included in Yanagi Sõetsu’s Kare no Chosen Yuki (His travels to Korea; first published in Kaizo October 1920). Kare no Chosen Yuki is a travelogue describing Yanagi’s second trip to Korea, in May 1920, but Yanagi includes quotes from letters that Singh sent to him from Korea. One of the comments that Singh made was, “Yesterday evening, I followed your recommendation and went to see the amazing Joseon jar at A’s place. It’s truly sabishii—sad, lonely, and magnificently beautiful. I see it as a representative of Korean aesthetics. While there, we took a photo with the jar. It’s totally unique!”27 In this text, “you” and “your” refer to Yanagi, “A” refers to either Asakawa Noritaka (1884-1964) or his brother Asakawa Takumi (1891-1931). And what Singh describes as “the amazing Joseon jar” is the Jar: Porcelain with lotus design in underglaze cobalt-blue and copper-red-paint currently held by the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, but owned by Asakawa Noritaka at the time of Singh’s visit. The photograph is the image source that provides a link between the jar, Singh, and Japan. Specifically, it is a photograph of Singh and Asakawa Takumi on either side of the jar (Figure 17). Singh and Takumi both wear neckties. Singh, wearing a turban, gazes calmly into the camera’s lens.

The mount for the photograph has an inscription in Japanese saying “To my brother G. 1920.8.31. Takumi”.

As Singh wrote in his letter to Yanagi Sõetsu that, “I followed your recommendation and went to see the amazing Joseon jar at A’s place,” we can understand that Singh had already heard of the existence of this jar from Yanagi, It is safe to assume that Yanagi’s recommendations extended further than the jar, and that the motivation for Singh to take a trip to Korea at all was influenced by Yanagi’s enthusiasm for

Ceramic art in Japan around 1920

Joseon aesthetics. It is likely that Singh was attempting to gain the same experiences as Yanagi, encountering the crafts that he had praised, and also the architecture and scenery. It appears that for Singh, the Korea trip surpassed his expectations, as he wrote to Yanagi: “In the surroundings, the walls and the special roofs, the food, and in all things, I feel love, and I feel respect. I find myself almost unable to leave this place. I suspect that when the time for me to die arrives, I would like to come here and die amongst these people and then be buried in one of these peaceful hills.”28 There is also mention of this trip in a letter from Yanagi to Leach, who had returned to the UK, “This summer, Singh made a replete and satisfying trip to Korea, coming to love Korea, and feeling deeply loved by the Korean people. He was able to meet nearly all of the Koreans who I met in the spring. That is resulting in a great deal of talk about those people, and about Korea issues.29 From this letter, we can deduce that Yanagi Sõetsu and Singh frequently talked about Korea.

Yanagi Sõetsu first visited Asakawa Noritaka and toured the Korean peninsula in September 1916. On that occasion, Yanagi had stayed at Asakawa Takumi’s house at Ahyeon in Gyeongseong, and observed people living their lives surrounded by beautiful implements. That was the moment his eyes were opened to the existence of the folk arts and crafts that he later came to describe as mingei.30 Yanagi Sõetsu’s intense enthusiasm for Joseon pottery, however, did not arise until four years later on his second trip to Korea in May 1920. After this second trip, Yanagi decided to write about Korean art history and to establish a Korean folk art museum,31 a decision that originated in his encounter with Asakawa Noritaka’s “amazing Joseon jar”, the Jar: Porcelain with lotus design in underglaze cobalt-blue and copper-red-paint.

Yanagi Sõetsu’s experiences of walking around museums and palace buildings, bookshops and second-hand stores to find the traces of old Korea are reported in Kare no Chosen Yuki, but the highlight is probably his encounter with Jar: Porcelain with lotus design in underglaze cobaltblue and copper-red-paint. Yanagi described his feelings on seeing it as “it hit me on an emotional level that I’d never experienced before”,32 adding that, “the lotus appears to be lost in thought about something.

It has the air of thinking deeply, tilting its head towards its hand like the well-known statue of a pensive, somewhat-feminine Bodhisattva that sits with one leg pendent and its head tilted towards its raised hand. [...]

When I gaze at it with my heart and mind, everything seems to be purified and calmed, as if I were crossing to the afterlife. It’s an amazing sense of calm. There, surely, is the pure land where the lotus flower blossoms, as loved by that devout Buddhist. Quiet solitude and still beauty close in on the viewer’s mind ...”33 Yanagi saw the lotus flower painted on the

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Insights from Gurcharan Singh’s pottery collection

jar as emulating the half-seated position that the Bodhisattva Maitreya is often portrayed in, and he took the jar to be an expression of the Buddhist pure land, manifesting calm, quiet solitude, and still beauty.

The “truly sabishii—sad, lonely” phrase that Singh selected to convey his emotional reaction in the letter that he sent to Yanagi was a phrase that Yanagi would also have related to. It shows that Singh and Yanagi had a shared sense of the beauty of sadness.

Today, it seems a little strange, but until Yanagi Sõetsu and Asakawa Noritaka and his brother Takumi began to praise it in the early years of the 1920s, Joseon pottery had the reputation of being technically inferior and somewhat unsophisticated. It was not particularly highly valued. The earliest to appreciate the pottery of this period were the Asakawa brothers and Yanagi Sõetsu, who were attracted to the painting and to the forms of ceramics that were unconstrained by conventions and seemed to be casually-executed. Yanagi planned and curated an exhibition of Korean folk arts in May 1921 at the Kanda Ruisseau (Ryuitsuso) gallery in Tokyo, and then published a special issue of Shirakaba magazine featuring Joseon pottery in September 1922. Activities like these brought a dramatic improvement in Japanese evaluation of Joseon pottery. Before then, Japanese appreciation of Korean pottery had focused on ceramics produced in the Goryeo period (918-1392). What was called “Goryeo tea bowls” in styles such as ido, buncheong and hakeme were highly valued for tea ceremony use, and collectors valued Goryeo celadon. In contrast, Joseon ceramics in white porcelain or decorated using iron-brown glaze or blue-andwhite porcelain were perceived as having little value for collecting or ornamental purposes. This can be seen, for instance, in the writings of Okuda Seiichi (1883-1955), who was one of the leading academic specialists in the area of ceramics at the time. Okuda traveled around the Korean peninsula and China in 1919, and summarized the results of his surveys in a series of nine articles entitled “Chosen no Tojiki nitsuite” (Korean Ceramics) published in Kokka, between Kokka No.381 (February 1922) and No.393 (February 1923). Okuda saw the Goryeo period as the golden age of Korean ceramics, but stated that as a result of the destruction of the ceramic industry throughout the Korean peninsula by the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–93, 1597–98), the “capacity to produce good Joseon pottery no longer existed from the Middle Joseon period onwards”. He was severely critical of the Joseon pottery that had been produced, describing it as lax and artless ceramics that were dull, coarse and sloppy.34 In contrast, Okuda Seiichi called Kawai Kanjirõ (1890-1966) a genius.

After graduating from the Tokyo Higher Technical School, Kawai took a

Ceramic art in Japan around 1920

job at the Kyoto City Ceramic Research Institute, choosing the career of a ceramic engineer. With backing from Kiyomizu Rokubei (1875-1959), he went independent in 1917 and became a ceramic artist, working from a base in the Gojozaka area of Kyoto. Then, in May 1921, he leapt into the spotlight with his first solo exhibition, held at the Takashimaya department store, where he presented works that used glazing techniques to imitate the style of Chinese ceramics. Oddly enough, his show coincided with the exhibition of Korean folk art curated by Yanagi Sõetsu at Kanda Ruisseau in Tokyo. Kawai went to see the Yanagi exhibition and was enthralled by the beauty of Joseon pottery, which he had never encountered before. He was so overwhelmed by the experience that when returning to his own exhibition by train, he missed his stop.35 Kawai’s empathy for the Joseon pottery that had been seen as dull and artless, and hardly considered to have any value at all, was in some senses similar to the origins of the Mingei movement some years later. The commonality lies in the modernization of monozukuri (skilled manufacture or craftsmanship). Both experiences are positioned within the difficult-to-resist stream of mechanization, mass production, and standardization, and they share the thinking of finding value in work performed by human hands. But this is not the skill-oriented work of an imperial household artist testing the limits of human capabilities to produce the ultimate hand-made product for exhibiting at an international exposition. Instead, what inspires empathy is its polar opposite, a different type of beauty: the beauty of the artlessness that results from creation by real human hands. Like Kawai, Singh also studied at Tokyo Higher Technical School, accumulating knowledge and experience of ceramics. Singh was also attracted by the raw traces of human hands, and surely found the free and easy-going art of Joseon pottery to be an important pointer to the way ahead.

Works made by Gurcharan Singh in Japan According to a letter from Yanagi Sõetsu to Bernard Leach dated 31 October 1920, Singh was hoping to use the kiln that Leach had used in Tokyo, in the grounds of Kuroda Seiki’s house in Azabu, and had apparently approached Naka Seigo of the Ruisseau gallery, who was acting as caretaker for the Kuroda House. Yanagi Sõetsu intervened in an attempt to make the proposal work, but in the end, Singh was not permitted to use the kiln.36 Consequently, when he finished his Tokyo Higher Technical School studies in April 1921, Singh had to find somewhere to work from. He appears to have contacted Gokan Bunnosuke, who was a member of the teaching staff at Aichi Prefecture’s Seto Ceramics School (today’s Aichi Prefectural Seto Pottery Senior

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Insights from Gurcharan Singh’s pottery collection

High School), and moved to Seto. Through Gokan’s introduction, he was able to find a place to work in Seto.37 In the Singh Collection, the Kizeto Earthenware Casserole (J19) has a “Shunji “(春二) mark, and the four-piece Set of Fan Dishes with Song Designs (J43) has a “Toju” (陶 寿) mark. “Shunji” is almost certainly the mark of Katõ Shunji (the 2nd generation Katõ Shunji, 1892-1979), who used the Aoi-gama kiln in Seto, and “Toju” may well be the post-retirement mark of his predecessor, the 1st generation Katõ Shunji. These items can reasonably be said to establish Singh’s link with Seto.38 Despite that, just having them in the Singh collection is not sufficient evidence to demonstrate that Singh worked at Katõ Shunji’s Aoi-gama kiln. Moreover, none of the works in the Singh Collection have been positively identified as being produced by Singh at Seto.

Fig. 18. Gurcharan Singh, Plate with Sgraffito Flower Motif, 1921, Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, Gift of Gurcharan Singh (J48).

Fig. 19. Gurcharan Singh, Seven-Sided White Porcelain Panel, c. 1921, Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, Gift of Gurcharan Singh (J50).

The Gurcharan Singh Collection as donated to the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh has a number of items designated J (Japan). This category includes a number of items that can be assumed to have been produced by Singh himself while studying in Japan.

For instance, Plate with Sgraffito Flower Motif (Figure 18) is one example of an item recognisably signed by Singh. From a surface with faint traces of white brushmark slip (hakeme), a thin layer of slip has been scraped away to draw a heartshaped flower motif. This sgraffito technique is also used below the motif for Singh’s signature and the numbers “19” and “21”. As described above, in November 1921, Gurcharan Singh visited Tomimoto Kenkichi’s studio in Nara along with Yanagi Sõetsu and his wife. The grey slip with a faint hint of blue, the colour tones of the glazes, and fact that the unglazed surface that remains visible where the glaze does not extend to the foot resembles the unglazed works produced from time to time by Tomimoto Kenkichi during his Yamato period when he was based in Nara—these are all points that support a suggestion of this item being made at Tomimoto’s studio, using Tomimoto’s clay and glazes.

Further evidence is provided by the cloth texture on the underside being similar to the texture remaining on Tomimoto Kenkichi’s Octagonal Ceramic Box with Leaf Motif, and the fact that the potter has deliberately and clearly inscribed the date (1921) below the flower petals, reminiscent of Octagonal Ceramic Box with Leaf Motif.

Another item where Singh’s signature can be discerned is the seven-

Ceramic art in Japan around 1920

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sided white porcelain panel (Figure 19). At first glance, it would seem reasonable to describe it as a tile, but a seven-sided tile would be a somewhat unusual shape. Moreover, the signature is on the back, but tiles are destined for cementing to a floor or wall, which would make the signature invisible. These reasons make it difficult to accept that this is a tile. Furthermore, the piece is thick and undecorated, which gives it a solid, weighty feeling, and the shape makes it awkward for using as tableware.

Its function is unclear, but the unusual seven-sided shape leaves a strong impression.

Another item bearing Singh’s name is a loquat-coloured flat bowl resembling an ido tea bowl (Figure 20). It still retains a finger indentation formed when being removed from the wheel, and on the interior, it has a lattice motif in the centre at the bottom. On the underside are written what appear to be abbreviated names, “シング”, “うた乃”, “いと子”, “と み”, “古すい” (Singh, Utano, Itoko, Tomi, Kosui). As Singh is only one of the names, it is difficult to assert with certainty that it represents the potter’s signature. Nevertheless, if the relationship between Singh and these people could be ascertained, the timing and circumstances under which the bowl was made would probably become clear. After leaving the Tokyo Higher Technical School’s Department of Ceramics, Singh remained in Japan for a further year, so in addition to visiting a kiln in Seto and Tomimoto Kenkichi’s workshop in Nara, it is likely that he travelled to other areas, visited other potters, and made additional pieces. At the moment, the information available is restricted to what can be gleaned from the works in his collection, so obtaining further information is a topic that should be addressed by additional surveys.

Conclusion Gurcharan Singh’s pottery collection, held by the Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, contains a large variety of different types of ceramics, as illustrated herein. They include trial pieces produced by a ceramic research institute, a majolica commemorative item from the Tokyo Higher Technical School, amateur raku ware produced by the hobbyists in the Garakuta-shu circle, a work by Tomimoto Kenkichi, excavated finds from the Korean peninsula, Joseon pottery and works produced by Singh himself. From the items in the collection, we can discern, albeit incompletely, the Japanese ceramicists and people

Fig. 20. Gurcharan Singh, Flat Bowl with Multiple Signatures, c. 1921, Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, Gift of Gurcharan Singh (J21).

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Insights from Gurcharan Singh’s pottery collection

interested in ceramics who Singh encountered as an Indian student in Japan around 1920. They included the ceramic engineering researchers at the Tokyo Higher Technical School, individuals starting off as studio potters such as Tomimoto Kenkichi and Bernard Leach, the hobbyist members of the Garakuta-shu circle, and people such as Yanagi Sõetsu and Asakawa Takumi who became some of the earliest collectors of Joseon ware. The breadth and variety of this collection seems to reflect Singh’s approach of seeking out his own path while observing the situation of ceramics in Japan with a flexible gaze, without preconceptions or prejudices.

This paper is only able to introduce a small part, about one fifth, of the Japanese ceramics in Gurcharan Singh’s collection. In addition to those described here, the Singh Collection contains a large variety of other ceramics, including many items for which the creator, date and provenance remain unclear. The majority of these items are everyday pottery, going outside the range of what is generally included in “creator unknown.” Consequently, if further surveys are able to identify the production area and creator of these items, they may throw light on Singh’s movements in Japan and provide a clearer picture of ceramic art in Japan in about 1920.

Notes and acknowledgements This paper is English’s translation of Gurucharan Shin no tojiki korekushon kara mietekuru mono—Indojin ryugakusei ga mita 1920nen goro no Nihon no Togei” (Bishiken Journal, No.14, March 2018, Tokyo: History of Art and Design Study Room Course of Musashino Art University.)

The author would like to thank the following individuals and organizations who provided support and assistance in connection with researching the objects and writing this report: Delhi Blue Pottery Trust, Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, Brij Tankha, Bryan Solomon, The Japan Foundation, Okamoto Takashi, Ogura Kazushige, Katayama Mabi, Kikuchi Yuko, Sasaki Hiroko, and Miwa Tomoe.

23 around 1920 Ceramic art in JapanCeramic around 1920 art in Japan

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End notes 1 Mikami Tsugio, ed., Sekai Toji Zenshu [The ceramic art of the world]. (Tokyo, Shogakukan, 1958), 16:156.

2 Pottery and the Legacy of Sardar Gurcharan Singh (Delhi Blue Pottery Trust, 1998), 69.

3 Pottery and the Legacy of Sardar Gurcharan Singh, 65.

4 Hashimoto Yorimitsu, “Indo no Togeika Gurucharan Shin: 1” [Indian studio potter Gurcharan Singh: 1], Mingei 747 (March 2015): 55.

5 Tokyo Kogyo Daigaku Hyakunen-shi Tsushi [Tokyo Institute of Technology centennial history: Comprehensive history], (Tokyo Institute of Technology, 1985), 215, 217.

6 Hashimoto Yorimitsu, “Indo no Togeika: 1” [Indian studio potter: 1] 7 Hirano Kõsuke, Honpo Tojikigyo no Shorai nitaisuru Shokan to Shikenjo Kongo no Hoshin nitsuite [Thoughts on the future of Japan’s ceramics industry, and future policy for the Central Research Laboratory]; lecture given in November 1930 at the 4th Ceramic Engineering Officer Conference, in Hoteiso Shoshi (1940): 206-209.

8 Tokyo Kogyo Daigaku Hyakunen-shi Bukyokushi [Tokyo Institute of Technology centennial history: Departmental histories], (Tokyo Institute of Technology, 1985), 178.

9 Hirano Kõsuke, Honpo Tojikigyo no Shorai [Future of Japan’s ceramics industry], 57.

10 Tokyo Kogyo Daigaku Bukyokushi [Tokyo Institute of Technology departmental histories], 178.

11 Tokyo Kogyo Daigaku Tsushi [Tokyo Institute of Technology comprehensive history], 269.

12 Personal communication from Sasaki Hiroko, Tokyo Institute of Technology Centennial Hall curator.

13 Hashimoto Yorimitsu, “Indo no Togeika Gurucharan Shin: 4” [Indian studio potter Gurcharan Singh: 4], Mingei 750 (June 2015): 55.

14 Yamaguchi Masao, Uchida Roan Sanmyaku [Uchida Roan’s discovery of great Japanese], (Tokyo: Shobunsha, 2001), 330.

15 Saitõ Ryõsuke, ed., Kyodo Gangu Jiten [Dictionary of folk toys], (Tokyo: Tokyodo Shuppan, 1971), 91.

16 Yamaguchi Masao, Uchida Roan Sanmyaku [Uchida Roan’s discovery], 342.

17 Personal communication from Ogura Kazushige of the Inba Cultural Property Center.

18 Tsuji Seimei, ed., Shumi no Yakimonozukuri [Pottery as a hobby], (Tokuma Shoten, 1963), 107.

19 Suzuki Sadahiro, Banado Richi no Shogai to Geijutsu: “Higashi to Nishi no Kekkon” no Vijon [The life and art of Bernard Leach: The vision of “the marriage of East and West”], (Kyoto: Minerva Publishing, 2006), 36.

20 Tomimoto Kenkichi, Minami Kunzõ ate shokan 11, 1911-nen 6-gatsu 26-nichi-tuke [Correspondence to Minami Kunzõ 11, dated 26 June, 1911] in Minami Kunzõate Tomimoto Kenkichi shokan [Correspondence to Minami Kunzõ from Tomimoto Kenkichi], (Nara Prefectural Museum of Art, 2000), 14.

21 Tomimoto Kenkichi, “Han-No Geijutsuka Yori” [Notes from a semi-agricultural artist], Bijutsu Shinpõ 12 (6) (April 1913): 29.

22 Watanabe Sumiko, Seito no Onna: Otake Kokichi-den [Bluestocking woman: The biography of Otake Kõkichi], (Tokyo: Fuji-shuppan, 2001), 175.

23 Gurcharan Singh, Pottery in India, (New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1979), 99, 101.

24 “Tenrankai” [Exhibitions], Bijutsu Shinpõ 12 (8) (June 1913): 31.

25 For instance: Tsuda Seifõ, “Gaka to Shokkõ” [Artist and artisan], Gendai no Yoga [Graphic oil painting now] 10 (January 1913); Kamisaka Sekka, “Kõetsu no Geijutsu” [Art of Kõetsu] Kyoto Bijutsu 37 (December 1915).

26 Yanagi Sõetsu, Kare no Chosen Yuki [His travels to Korea], in Yanagi Sõetsu Zenshu: [The collected works of Yanagi Sõetsu], (Chikuma Shobo, 1981), 6:72-73. Originally published in Kaizo (October 1920).

27 Yanagi Sõetsu, Kare no Chosen Yuki [His travels to Korea], 73.

28 Yanagi Sõetsu, Kare no Chosen Yuki [His travels to Korea], 72.

29 Yanagi Sõetsu, Banado Richi Ate Tegami 1920-nen 10-gatsu 31-nichi [Letter to Bernard Leach, 31 October, 1920] in Yanagi Sõetsu Zenshu: Chosaku-hen 21 Jo: Shokan Jo [The collected works of Yanagi Sõetsu: Writings 21-1: Correspondence 1], (Chikuma Shobo, 1989), 233.

30 Yanagi Sõetsu, Banado Richi Ate Tegami [Letter to Bernard Leach], 101.

31 Yanagi Sõetsu, Kare no Chosen Yuki [His travels to Korea], 70.

32 Yanagi Sõetsu, Kare no Chosen Yuki [His travels to Korea], 68.

33 Yanagi Sõetsu, Kare no Chosen Yuki [His travels to Korea], 69-70.

34 Okuda Seiichi, “Chosen no Tojiki nitsuite (1)” [Korean Ceramics (1)], Kokka 381 (February 1922): 298.

35 Mizuo Hiroshi, Gendai no Tosho [Contemporary masters of ceramics], (Unsodo, 1979), 244.

36 Yanagi Sõetsu, Banado Richi Ate Tegami, 234.

37 Hashimoto Yorimitsu. “Indo no Togeika Gurucharan Shin: 3” [Indian studio potter Gurcharan Singh: 3], Mingei 749 (May 2015): 58. A personal communication from Miwa Tomoe of the Aichi Prefectural Seto Pottery Senior High School reports that Gokan Bunnosuke was on the teaching staff at the Seto Ceramics School from April 1921 to March 1923.

38 Personal communication from Okamoto Takashi of the Museum of the Imperial Collections Sannomaru-Shõzõkan.

See Seto Sakutokai no Togei: Katõ Seizan wo Chushin ni [Ceramic art of the Seto Potters’ Circle: Centered on Katõ Seizan] exhibition catalogue, (Seto City Art Museum, 2008), 24.

Insights from Gurcharan Singh’s pottery collection

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