Shimizu Uichi 清水 卯一 Japanese, 1926-2004
H22.2 × Dia 20.8 × Lip dia 12.4 cm
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Shimizu Uichi was designated a Living National Treasure for his contributions using iron-containing glazes (tetsu-yu). His predecessor for this title was the great Ishiguro Munemaro (1893-1968), one of the original ceramic artists designated a title in the very first group of Living National Treasures in 1955. Iron-rich glazes often suggests black or brown coloration but Shimizu Uichi created strong white and celadon shades as well as his mastery over the metallic glaze.
Alongside Hayashi Yasuo, Shimizu was a part of the avant-garde ceramicist group “Shikokai 四耕社” in the Kyoto scene during the post-war period in the 1950s and 60s. The movement permitted potters to re-conceptualize pottery outside of industry traditions of Japanese ceramics, which had been dominated by the idea that lineage- rather, potters who were children of pottery masters- granted credibility to ceramicists. Shimizu’s frank boldness rippled through the ceramics world in Japan and created fresh aesthetic values, tenets, and precedents for what permitted a ceramic art object.