Bizen Guinomi

This is a Bizen Guinomi from the period when Toshimine Kagami used the name “Seihou,” an artist nurtured by the great masters of modern ceramics who went on to open up his own distinctive artistic world.

A printed career record up to 1998 (Heisei 10) is enclosed, and the piece is believed to have been made around that time.

Having received guidance from some of the most renowned potters in the Bizen world—such as Tōyō Kaneshige and Tōshū Yamamoto—Seihou created a work that fully captures the fascination of ash-deposited kiln effects produced in a Noborigama (climbing kiln).

The slowly and thoroughly fired ash deposits appear almost to glow in a mouse-grey tone, creating a beautiful contrast with the soft Hiiro that emerges in the areas where the ash has cleared.

Also noteworthy is Seihou’s signature form: a thick, wheel-thrown body that is carved with a spatula to create a bold, faceted shinogi texture. The spiral-like shape, as if converging while rotating, evokes the image of a sacred peak towering upward—true to the character “mine” in his name.

He was born in Bizen City, Okayama Prefecture, in 1921.
He became a potter in 1949.
He died in 2017.