Murata Gen 村田 元 Japanese, 1904-1988
Jar, Iron and rice husk glaze
Stoneware
H8 × Dia 5 in.
H20.3 × Dia 12.7 cm
H20.3 × Dia 12.7 cm
With signed wood box
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Born as the second son of Murata Tasaburo and Retsu in 1904, Murata Gen grew up with the earth in a farming family in the Ishikawa prefecture located next to...
Born as the second son of Murata Tasaburo and Retsu in 1904, Murata Gen grew up with the earth in a farming family in the Ishikawa prefecture located next to the Sea of Japan. From a young age, he was creatively inclined, dropping out of junior high school to study classical painting in Kyoto until he entered the Kansai Bijutsu Gakuin (Kansai Art Academy) in 1922. However, the war shattered his dreams of being a painter. His first encounter with pottery was when he visited a folk craft exhibition showcasing Mashiko wares in 1934 in Matsuzakaya, Tokyo. It was then that he had decided to relocate permanently to Mashiko in 1924. He especially followed in Hamada Shoji’s footsteps, whose Mashiko pottery he greatly admired. He was determined to be Hamada’s apprentice. Finally, in 1955 at Izumi Kogei craft shop, Tokyo, Murata Gen held his first exhibition. He displayed his hard-earned honed skill and mastery over traditional glazes such as Nuka (rice-husk), kaki-yu (persimmon), and various iron glazes that are displayed in a scrolling pattern over his functional clay wares. He showcased his sensitivity to the clay medium, which simultaneously drew upon his training as a painter.
Murata Gen’s training in classical painting foregrounds his mastery over surface scapes. His functional wares employed powerful, unique glazes decoration to express scenic vistas. Like Hamada Shoji, Murata Gen chose to use only clay and glazes indigenous to Mashiko; he was a mindful Mingei practitioner that built his clay works with intention. Unlike the anonymous craftsmen of his contemporaries- Yanagi Soetsu, Hamada Shoji- Murata Gen worked by himself and he consistently signed his work with a ‘mu’. He sought to establish himself as an artist, blurring the lines between craftsmanship and high art.