Box that is not a Box

Nakamura Takuo lives in Kanazawa, a culturally rich city located on the Sea of Japan. In his work, he attempts to link the traditions of three hundred year-old Kutani ware and an aesthetic sense associated with artists of the Rinpa school with a modern sense of form. This work belongs to a series of works the artist calls “utsuwa ni naru koto o yameta utsuwa, ” which literally means, “vessel not a vessel.” Its surface is decorated with colorful irises, a motif deeply associated in Japan with Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716), whose work inspired the Rinpa school of artists.