KONDO Yutaka 近藤豊 B.1932-1983 Being an elder son of the living national treasure Yuzo Kondo近藤悠三. He certainly came out of his father’s shadow by creating work like this in his...
KONDO Yutaka 近藤豊 B.1932-1983 Being an elder son of the living national treasure Yuzo Kondo近藤悠三. He certainly came out of his father’s shadow by creating work like this in his later age. Kyoto ceramic community is a fearist competitive battlefield. He found his voice in this Mishima stenciled pattern the shape of a bottle taken from a large sake bottle. It has a full body and small opening which gives us attention to this piece.
Yutaka Kondo was born as the eldest son of Yuzo Kondo, a living national treasure in the technique of underglaze blue, and developed his own unique style while assisting his father Yuzo in his work.At Kyoto University of the Arts, he taught younger generations, and as a result, his achievements in producing many excellent ceramic artists deserve high praise.Yutaka Kondo's mastery of traditional techniques while always incorporating a modern sensibility contributed greatly to the development of Kyoto ceramics in the postwar period, creating a ceramic culture in Kyoto, a city with a traditional climate, that created something that had never existed before.He did not follow his father Yuzo's stoneware style at all, but sought modernity in earthenware using techniques such as Mishima inka, sumi-nagashi, and kohiki, and through repeated trial and error, completed the "Funka"粉華 style of white on black with a Mishima inka pattern. The name "Funka" 粉華 comes from the combination of kohiki and inka, and as a result, it is highly regarded by later generations as one of Yutaka Kondo's representative works.This piece is a representative "Funka" 粉華 vase from his later years. The beautiful form of the shiribari and narrow mouth, inspired by the old Bizen boat tokuri, is fused with a modern black-and-white pattern, creating a beautiful harmony of the ancient and modern.