Today's update features a Bizen tiger ornament by Sotoku Kimura, the 16th generation of the Kimura family—one of the six prestigious Bizen pottery families—and a master potter hailed as one of the "Three Eccentrics of Bizen."
The reason he was called one of the "Three Eccentrics" is that, quite unusually for Bizen potters of his time, Master Sotoku spent more time observing and sketching animals and other motifs than he did actually potting.
While such a practice was unheard of among the people of that era, and many found his habit of endlessly staring at animals rather strange, he was eventually counted among the three eccentrics in recognition of his brilliant craftsmanship and ceramic sculpting skills.
This piece, too, showcases magnificent ceramic sculpting, masterfully capturing a growling tiger.
With its shoulder blades rising and its eyes fixed toward the heavens, the tiger possesses an intensity as if it were about to pounce from its rocky perch at any moment.
Its massive, fierce claws are also precisely carved, yet they retain the raw, savage quality of natural claws; even as ceramic, one feels as though they would rip through flesh should they be touched.
Combined with the tiger's upward-gazing expression, I am surely not the only one reminded of the famous "Dragon and Tiger" paintings.
When superb composition meets undeniable technical skill, a work expands the scope of its expression, inviting the viewer into "the composition beyond" and "a new story."
Though it is a tiger figurine, one cannot help but feel the presence of an inevitable battle with a dragon soaring in the sky.
Beyond this technical brilliance, if one looks at the finer details, one can see glimpses of the extraordinary powers of observation that earned him the title of "Eccentric."
While an average person might end up drawing a tiger that looks more like a cat, this piece captures the swelling and contraction of muscles, the shifting of skin, and the orientation of every part with pinpoint accuracy.
In particular, the positioning of the ears, the movement of the lips as it bares its fangs, and the three-dimensional depth and length of its tongue are, in a word, magnificent.
It is a masterful expression befitting one of the "Three Eccentrics," who spent his life observing the every movement of living tigers.
(16th Generation Sotoku Kimura / Bizen Tiger Ornament, with signed box)
size: Maximum width 33.4cm × depth 17.5cm × height 20.0cm price: Sold
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