Black and White Catalogue

J O A N B M I RVISS LTD

Presented at Joan B Mirviss LTD, New York Collaboration with Shibuya Kurodatoen Co., LTD March 14 – April 25, 2014

As part of this spring’s Asia Week New York, Joan B. Mirviss, Ltd. is proud to present a truly special exhibition, Japan in Black and White: Ink and Clay, which will focus on an important concept in Japanese Art: the juxtaposition of darkness and light. Organized in collaboration with Shibuya Kurodatoen Co., Ltd., the leading modern ceramics dealer in Japan, the show will be a fitting sequel to our groundbreaking 2013 joint exhibition, Seven Sages of Ceramics; Modern Japanese Masters. This year’s show features major black and white work of many of Japan’s most important post-World War II ceramic artists, including masters who worked in the 1950s through the 1990s as well as many of Japan’s finest current ceramists. Complementing and extending the visual discussion on this theme are black-and-white, largely ink-focused paintings and screens by illustrious Japanese artists of the late eighteenth century. Joe Earle’s insightful essay in this catalogue explores the relationship of these two principal colors in Japanese culture and art.

A project like this one requires great teamwork, and I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who worked so hard and effectively to make this exhibition and catalogue a reality: my knowledgeable and energetic colleague Kuroda Koji; coordinators Noriko Ozawa and Akemi Yoneyama; book designer and dear friend Nami Hoppin; registrar and shipping coordinator Maren Jansen; our able intern Amanda Sheff; our New York and Tokyo photographers Richard Goodbody and Yokota Shōichi, and our printer, Keith Harrington of Phoenix. With their combined talent, insights and patience, these people have made this visually and intellectually challenging exhibition a joy to bring to fruition.

Joan B. Mirviss February 2014

White and Black,

Red and Green Joe Earle

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n 1988 Marvel Comics launched the U.S. edition of Akira, Ōtomo Katsuhiro’s sprawling black-and-white manga masterpiece. The words, of course, had to be translated from Japanese into English but Marvel went further and hired an American, Steve Oliff, to color the entire series.1 Despite Oliff’s pioneering computer wizardry, though, many lovers of Japanese art would find it difficult to see much merit in his intervention: Ōtomo’s visions of NeoTokyo looked great just the way they were. It’s perhaps this sense of the “rightness” of monochrome manga that has stimulated some commentators to look for an essential “Japan-ness” in the genre and to make links between works such as Akira and traditional masterpieces like the celebrated Chōjū giga scrolls (12th–13th century), with their lively ink-on-paper scenes of animals caricaturing human foibles. However, before we go still further and

start declaring that “Japan has an innate genius for art in black and white” we should keep in mind that although shiro (“white”) and kuro (“black”) are among the oldest color words in the Japanese language, so too are aka (“red”) and ao (“blue” or “green”).

Even if all four words might once have referred not so much to hues as to contrasting qualities, such as opacity versus transparency or clarity versus darkness, by the seventh century they had taken on meanings that probably correspond pretty closely with those they have today.2 A further color, yellow, was added to the traditional list and the five resulting colors were assimilated to the ancient Chinese theory of the “five agents,” with black standing for water, red for fire, blue/green for wood, white for metal, and yellow for earth. Following centuries witnessed the emergence of a glorious religious iconography that gave visual form to extravagant descriptions laid down in the Buddhist scriptures, and Japanese artists also created a distinctive style of narrative painting that was no less colorful.

As in most other cultures there are examples from early times of monochrome drawings executed on a plain textile or paper support, either in their own right or as sketches

Sōami (died 1525) Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang, early 16th century. Ink on paper, 68 1/4 x 146 inches. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of John D. Rockefeller Jr., 1941 (41.59.1).

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for subsequent working up in color. But it is art created after the introduction of Zen Buddhism and its associated ink painting and calligraphy that has done most to form our contemporary perception of Japan as a culture that uniquely privileges the aesthetics of black and white. The paper and, even more, the silk backgrounds of Zen scrolls and screens from the thirteenth century onward have invariably darkened over time, making it easy for us to forget just what a striking impression their bold contrasts might once have made on a courtly, priestly, and military elite accustomed to gorgeous polychromy. By transcending the imported Chinese manner through ever more finely graded ink washes and subtle manipulations of unpainted paper or silk, so that “what is empty is more significant than what is full,”3 Japanese ink painters have helped form our vision not just of Japanese pictorial art but of Japanese culture as a whole.

The works by artists such as Rosetsu, Hakuin, Jakuchū, and Ōkyo—virtuoso demonstrations of the adage sumi ni gosai ari (“ink includes all the five colors”)4—show the further development of these tendencies during revolutions in artistic practice and technique that took place during the eighteenth century (see p. 6-8). In the Rosetsu scroll, for example, the entire background is painted with a delicate graduated gray wash, leaving the “white” mice in the original light beige color of the silk with nothing more than dabs of pinkish color for the feet, ears, and other details.

NAGASAWA ROSETSU (1754-1799) Detail: Seven frolicking mice early 1780s (see p.8 for full image)

YAGI KAZUO (1918-1979) Detail: Hana no e no tsubo; Vessel with Flower Paintings 1971 (see p. 24 for full image)

Gakutei’s surimono of a white cat hissing at its reflection in a polished black-lacquer mirror stand depends for its effect on gaufrage (inkless printing or embossing), but this would not work without the brilliant white we see when the print is in outstanding condition. Thanks to the clarity of handmade paper—the product of time-consuming, laborintensive techniques for removing impurities—artists of the later Edo period (1615–1868) had little need for added white pigment, even though Japan had developed its own unique white colorant, gofun, made from naturally weathered and crushed seashells.5 In Japanese ceramics, the white-and-black, or white-anddark, manner is first seen toward the end of the sixteenth century in Shino wares from the Mino region of central Honshu Island. These feature simple, impressionistic designs painted in an iron-oxide slip over a creamy white feldspathic glaze. Also in the Mino region and around the same time, Japanese potters created a range of intense black wares such as Setoguro, covered with a mixture of ash and iron and withdrawn from the kiln while still at a high temperature. A similar technique was used to create black Raku wares, but with lead instead of iron glaze.

While these types of ceramic vessel were based in part on Chinese prototypes, it is reasonable to speculate that the new taste was also inspired by the pervasive presence of

ink painting and calligraphy in the cultivated world of the Momoyama-period (1568–1615) tea masters.

In modern and contemporary ceramics, the white-andblack tendency reflects not just earlier Japanese, but also Chinese and American inspiration. Twelfth-century Chinese Cizhou pots, for example, with their glossy black glaze and lively decoration, find an echo in the spherical vase by Yagi Kazuo and the small box by Ishiguro Munemaro. Again, since virtually all the ceramics featured in this catalogue date from after 1945 and were created in a fully globalized context, it comes as no surprise to detect elements of the black-and-white abstract expressionism of Franz Kline and his contemporaries in several other works

by Yagi, as well as in the cylindrical vase by Kumakura Junkichi (see p. 30), Kondō Yutaka’s white- and inkglazed rolled mouth vase (see p. 13), or Kawase Shinobu’s black-glazed teabowl (see p. 33). Even Fujimoto Nōdō, a ceramic artist we normally associate with richly colored enamels on porcelain, here successfully tries his hand at monochrome abstraction (see p. 26). For all these potters, just as for eighteenth-century painters, rejection of color was a conscious choice. It was also, perhaps, an expression of a desire to overstep the recent past, both aesthetically and politically, and to travel back to earlier, simpler times, the ancient association of black with water and white with metal reminding us of the elemental nature of the raw materials used to make even the most avant-garde ceramics.

Joe Earle was Director of Japan Society Gallery in New York and has held leadership positions at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Over the past 35 years he has organized more than two dozen exhibitions in Europe and the United States and written, translated, or edited books and catalogues on many aspects of Japanese culture.

Clog-shaped teabowl, early 17th century. Stoneware with black iron glaze (Mino ware, black oribe), 3 x 5 5/8 inches. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dr. and Mrs. Roger G. Gerry Collection, Bequest of Dr. and Mrs. Roger G. Gerry, 2000 (2002.447.28).

NOTES 1. http://www.akira2019.com/colouring-the-akira-manga.htm, accessed December 18, 2013.

2. James M. Stanlaw, “Japanese color terms, from 400 CE to the present,” in Robert E. MacLaury, Galina V. Paramei and Don Dedrick (eds.), Anthropology of Color: Interdisciplinary Multilevel Modeling. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2007, pp. 295–318, especially p. 299.

3. Stephen Addiss with Audrey Seo, How to Look at Japanese Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996, p. 61.

4. Asahi Shinbunsha, Nihon no iro (Colors of Japan). Exhibition catalogue; Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1990, p.110.

5. Elisabeth West FitzHugh, John Winter, and Marco Leona, Pigments in Later Japanese Paintings. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 2003, pp. 5–6.

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HAKUIN EKAKU (1685-1768) Tosō Tenjin composed of Chinese characters (moji-e) Sealed Hakuin; Ekaku no in; Rinzai shōshū Late 1750s 47 x 11 inches Hanging scroll Ink on paper

ITŌ JAKUCHŪ (1716-1800) Soaring cuckoo over stark landscape Sealed Tōkin no in; Jakuchū koji ca. 1785-1790 44 1/8 x 11 3/4 inches Hanging scroll Ink on paper

MARUYAMA ŌKYO (1733-1795) Standing crane by rocks Signed Ōkyo Sealed Ōkyo no in 1773, late spring, Year of the Snake 40 1/8 x 15 1/4 inches Hanging scroll Color and ink on silk

MARUYAMA ŌKYO (1733-1795) Full moon over an icy terrain Signed Ōkyo Sealed Ōkyo no; Chūsen 1777, summer, first day sixth month, Year of the Cock 39 1/4 x 12 5/8 inches Hanging scroll Ink on silk 7

NAGASAWA ROSETSU (1754-1799) Seven frolicking mice Signed Rosetsu sha i Sealed Nagasawa; Rosetsu Early 1780s 27 1/4 x 10 3/4 inches Hanging scroll Ink and light color on silk

KANŌ TANSHIN [Morimichi] (1785-1835) Large flock of flying and standing cranes Signed Hōgen Tanshinsai hitsu Sealed Kanō Tanshin ca. 1825-1835 71 x 146 inches (exterior of each screen) Pair of six-fold screens Ink, color and gold-leaf on paper

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KISHI RENZAN (1805-1859) Eagle in a snow covered pine tree Signed Renzan Gantoku Sealed Kishi Bunshin; Shidō ca. 1850 67 1/4 x 146 inches (exterior of each screen) Pair of six-fold screens Ink and light color on paper

TSUJI KAKŌ (1870-1931) Banana tree with sparrow Signed Kakō saku Sealed Kakō ca. 1910 41 1/2 x 15 inches Hanging scroll Ink and light color on silk

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Ishiguro Munemaro (1893-1968) Senten-ji gﾅ行u; Dotted-patterned Covered Container Early 1940s Glazed stoneware 3 3/8 x 4 inches ISHIGURO MUNEMARO (1893-1968) Koku-yﾅｫ kotsubo; Black-glazed Small Vessel ca. 1950 Glazed stoneware 4 7/8 x 5 1/8 inches

KondĹ? Yutaka (1932-1983) Suminagashi kaki; Flowing Black Inkglazed Vase Early 1960s Glazed stoneware 8 5/8 x 8 5/8 inches 13

Tomimoto Kenkichi (1886-1963) Hakuji mentoritsubo; White Porcelain Faceted Vessel 1931 Translucent-glazed porcelain 8 3/4 x 8 1/8 inches

Tomimoto Kenkichi (1886-1963) Hakuji tsubo; White Porcelain Vessel 1932 Translucent glazed porcelain 6 5/8 x 8 1/4 inches

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Yagi Kazuo (1918-1979) Sentenmon-tsubo; Thousand Dotspatterned Vessel ca. 1967 Glazed stoneware 4 1/8 x 4 3/4 inches

Suzuki Osamu (1926-2001) Ichirin tate; Single-stem Vase ca. 1960s Glazed stoneware 7 1/8 x 3 1/2 inches

YAGI KAZUO (1918-1979) Megami no TĹ?; Goddess Tower ca. 1945-55 Glazed stoneware 20 1/8 x 7 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches

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Yagi Kazuo (1918-1979) Shiro-ji saideigaki; White-glazed Vessel Decorated with Clay-strips ca. 1952 Glazed stoneware 10 1/2 x 8 1/8 inches

Yagi Kazuo (1918-1979) Kokusen shiro-geshĹ? tsutsu hanaike; Black-lined White Matte-glazed Cylindrical Vase ca. 1959 Glazed stoneware 7 3/4 x 2 1/2 x 2 3/8 inches

Yagi Kazuo (1918-1979) Hakeme henko; Flattened Vessel with Brush-applied White Glaze ca. 1960s Glazed stoneware 6 1/8 x 6 1/4 x 4 3/8 inches 19

Yagi Kazuo (1918-1979) Tsutsu yunomi gokyaku soroi; Set of Five Cylindrical Tea Cups ca. 1955 Glazed stoneware 3 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches each

Yagi Kazuo (1918-1979) HĹ?ki; Square Vessel ca. 1964 Glazed stoneware 5 3/8 x 4 x 4 3/4 inches

Yagi Kazuo (1918-1979) Kakiotoshi hĹ?ko; Square Vessel with Etched Patterning 1966 Glazed stoneware 11 7/8 x 9 3/4 x 9 5/8 inches

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Yagi Kazuo (1918-1979) Kokuy큰 hakuy큰 sara; Black-glazed and White-glazed Plates ca. 1965 Glazed stoneware 2 x 5 x 6 5/8 inches each

Yagi Kazuo (1918-1979) Tsubo “Rikishi”; “Sumo Wrestler” Vessel 1970 Glazed stoneware 6 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches

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Yagi Kazuo (1918-1979) Hana no e no tsubo; Vessel with Flower Paintings 1971 Glazed stoneware 8 3/4 x 8 1/4 x 7 7/8 inches

Kamoda ShĹ?ji (1933-1983) TetsuyĹŤ henko; Iron-glazed Flattened Vessel 1968 Glazed stoneware 10 x 9 1/2 x 6 3/4 inches 25

Kawamoto Gorō (1919-1986) Tōjinyō; Clay Figure Throwing Teabowl 1969-1970 Translucent-glazed porcelain 5 3/8 x 3 inches

Fujimoto Nōdō [Yoshimichi] (1919-1992) Zōgan kabin; Inlaid Vase ca. 1965 Glazed stoneware 8 x 9 7/8 inches

Kiyomizu Rokubei VII (1922-2006) Haku-yĹŤ hĹ?kaki; White-glazed Squared Vase ca. 1960 Glazed stoneware 12 1/8 x 10 3/8 inches

Yamada Hikaru (1923-2001) Hakuji hanaike; White Porcelain Vase 1981 Glazed porcelain 10 1/8 x 11 3/8 inches

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Yamada Hikaru (1923-2001) TĹ?hen mandara; Clay-Tile Mandala 1973 Glazed stoneware 18 3/4 x 13 3/4 x 3 3/8 inches

Yamada Hikaru (1923-2001) KokutĹ? to kinsai no sukurÄŤn; Smoke-infused and Gold-glazed Screen 1981 Smoke-infused and glazed stoneware and metal 20 1/2 x 13 1/2 x 2 3/4 inches 29

Kumakura Junkichi (1920-1985) Shirokeshō kurosai tsutsugata hanaire; White and Black-glazed Cylindrical Vase ca. 1970s Glazed stoneware 9 7/8 x 2 3/4 inches

Yamada Hikaru (1923-2001) Kokutō no mado; Smoke-infused Ceramic Windows 1983 Smoke-infused stoneware 12 ¼ x 24 x 3 inches

Mori TĹ?gaku (b. 1937) Hanaire henko; Flattened Round Vase ca. 1990 Natural ash-glazed stoneware 9 7/8 x 6 1/4 x 6 5/8 inches

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Hamada ShĹ?ji (1894-1978) HakuyĹŤ kuronagashigaki kakubin; White Square Bottle with Ladle-poured Black-glazed Design ca. 1960 Glazed stoneware 9 x 4 1/8 x 4 1/8 inches

Kawase Shinobu (b. 1950) Kuro chawan; Black Teabowl ca. 1993 Glazed stoneware 3 x 3 5/8 inches

Miwa KyĹŤsetsu XI [Jusetsu] (1910-2012) Oni-Hagi warikĹ?dai chawan; Rough Hagi-glazed Split-footed Teabowl 1996 Glazed stoneware 4 x 5 1/8 x 6 inches 33

AKIYAMA YŌ (b. 1953) Tension 1 1990 Smoke-infused (kokutō) stoneware 4 3/8 x 18 ½ x 19 5/8 inches

Kitamura Junko (b. 1956) Vessel 2013 Stoneware with black slip and white slip inlay 6 1/2 x 9 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches

Fujino Sachiko (b. 1950) HenyĹ? 13-8; Transfiguration 13-8 2013 Stoneware with grayish-white matte glaze 11 7/8 x 17 3/4 x 16 1/8 inches

Kaneta Masanao (b.1953) Hagi haku-yĹŤ kurinuki kaki; White Hagi-glazed Scooped-out Vase 2012 Glazed stoneware 14 x 18 7/8 x 12 1/4 inches

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Futamura Yoshimi (b. 1959) Nest 2013 2013 Stoneware and porcelain inlay 11 7/8 x 12 1/8 x 11 inches

Katsumata Chieko (b. 1950) Sango, Shio no hana; Coral, Flower of the Tides 2013 Glazed chamotte-encrusted stoneware 13 3/4 x 14 1/8 x 13 3/4 inches

KondĹ? Takahiro (b. 1958) Monolith kinginteki; Monolith, Gold and Silver Mist 2009

Glazed porcelain and cast glass 25 5/8 x 5 1/8 x 5 1/8 inches

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Kondō Takahiro (b. 1958) Reduction 2013 Porcelain with white underglaze and “silver mist” overglaze 31 7/8 x 24 3/8 x 16 7/8 inches

Miyashita Hideko (b. 1944) Tsuki no niwa; Moon Garden 2013 Glazed stoneware 15 1/2 x 13 1/8 x 8 1/8 inches

Nakaigawa Yuki (b. 1960) Growth Out of Balance, 2009 (left) 2009 Glazed stoneware 5 3/8 x 5 7/8 x 4 1/4 inches A Sunny Place, 2004 (right) 2004 Glazed stoneware 8 1/4 x 16 1/2 x 10 1/4 inches

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Names are given in Japanese sequence with family name first.

Published in conjunction with the exhibition “Japan in Black and White: Ink and Clay,” held at Joan B Mirviss LTD, New York from March 14 - April 25, 2014 Sōami six panel screen and clog-shaped teabowl images illustrated in “White and Black, Red and Green,” © The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY.

Photography: Yokota Shōichi and Richard Goodbody Catalogue design: Nami Hoppin Printer: Phoenix Lithographing Corp. © 2014 Joan B Mirviss LTD

Covers: Top: ITŌ JAKUCHŪ see p. 6 Bottom: Yagi Kazuo see p. 23 Inside cover: MARUYAMA ŌKYO see p. 7 Page 40: Yamada Hikaru see p. 28 Inside back cover: Kawamoto Gorō see p. 26

Back cover: Yamada Hikaru see p. 29 Mori Tōgaku see p. 31 Kawamoto Gorō see p. 26 Ishiguro Munemaro see p. 12 Yagi Kazuo see p. 23

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