Lone Spouted Bowl

Over the years, ceramic artist Toshiko Takaezu (1922 – 2011) developed an art that merges Eastern and Western aesthetics and techniques. While visiting her parents’ native Japan in 1955, Takaezu stayed in a Zen monastery and met some of Japan’s most distinguished traditional potters. She was also struck by the culture of tea ceremony, wherein the host carefully selects vessels to create a sense of harmony and tranquility. These vessels were usually simple, handmade, and slightly asymmetrical, bearing surface evidence of their manufacture. This early piece by Takaezu, Lone Spouted Bowl, was likely created around the time of her trip to Japan, when she was beginning to develop her own artistic expression, evidenced in the vessel’s smooth, simple shape and freely-painted glaze.