Makuzu Kōzan

In 1871 the Kyoto potter Miyagawa Kōzan opened a kiln in the treaty port of Yokohama, a city without clay, kilns or craft tradition. There he invented takaukibori, high relief in which hawks, bears, crabs and blossoms seem to climb out of the vessel, and won acclaim from Philadelphia in 1876 onward. From the 1880s he reinvented himself again as a master of Qing-inspired porcelain, underglaze colour and transmutation glazes. In 1896 he was appointed Imperial Household Artist, and at Paris in 1900 he won the only Japanese ceramic grand prix.

Born

1842, Makuzugahara, Kyoto

Kiln

Ōta, Yokohama, 1871–1945

Imperial Household Artist

30 June 1896

Died

20 May 1916

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Shown at the Second National Industrial Exhibition in 1881 and designated an Important Cultural Property in 2002. Two near life-size swimming crabs cling to a deliberately distorted bowl under brown and straw-ash glazes. It is Tokyo National Museum G-105.