Today's update features a Bizen "ran-bari" (randomly applied) square plate by the late, extraordinary master Shuroku Harada—a prodigy once called "fearsome"—who studied ancient Bizen ware alongside the great Bizen luminary, Matsaburo Katsura.
The piece includes a pottery biography from around 2004, suggesting it dates from that period.
It is a work where the techniques of ancient Bizen, learned while walking and researching old kiln sites with Matsaburo Katsura, fuse with the wild, dormant soul within himself.
Generally speaking, as ceramic artists age, they shed unnecessary tension, and their style typically shifts toward the delicate and refined.
However, Shuroku-sensei’s style only grew more intense and dense as he aged, as if the fierce energy swirling within him were being transferred into his works.
The base square plate alone is a work of great power, created using coarsely ground clay with minimal stone removal or kneading.
This causes the iron in the clay to boil and erupt from the surface; looking closely at the clay body, one can see a marbled effect and several places where large stones have burst.
Onto this, he has applied torn pieces of a different, sandier clay.
Even though both clays are rugged, he masterfully creates a contrast between the base and the randomly applied sections.
The interplay between these two wild clays builds a unique worldview, as if the piece had been carved from shattered rock.
(Shuroku Harada / Bizen Ran-bari Square Plate, with signed wooden box)
size: 25.8cm diameter x 25.5cm diameter x 8.5cm height price: ¥70,000
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