Takeshi Nishiura (西浦武), Japanese, 1941–2025

An Echizen Ware Flower Vase (越前花入) 

Showa Era (1926-1989) or Heisei Era (1989-2019) 

About the work

A powerful Echizen flower vase by Takeshi Nishiura, distinguished by its rugged natural surface and strongly sculptural form. The broad, rounded body rises into an irregular folded neck, creating an expressive silhouette characteristic of the artist’s approach to wood fired ceramics.

The surface displays rich effects produced through firing in an anagama kiln, ranging from earthy brown and charcoal to muted olive, ochre and grey. Coarse areas of exposed clay intermingle with natural ash deposits and vitrified passages, allowing the interaction of clay, flame and ash to become the principal decoration. The substantial body and deliberately irregular neck give the vessel an elemental presence closely connected to the traditions of Echizen ware.

The base bears the artist’s impressed mark. Accompanied by its original signed wooden storage box (tomobako) and signed cloth.

Dimensions

20.8cm(h) x 20cm(w)

Footnote

Takeshi Nishiura (西浦武, 1941–2025) was born in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture. After graduating from the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Law in 1965, he turned to ceramics in 1974 and established a gas kiln in Echizen in 1975. In 1982, having decided to devote his life to pottery, he built an anagama kiln and thereafter worked alongside his wife, Yoko Nakazawa, producing wood fired ceramics. He also studied under the guidance of the noted ceramic artist Moriwa Kimura through Kimura’s research group. Nishiura’s work is rooted in the historic Echizen tradition, with an emphasis on expressive forms and the natural effects of clay, flame and ash.