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Vase with Japanese zelkova tree design
Vase with Japanese zelkova tree design
Image © Worcester Art Museum, all rights reserved.

Vase with Japanese zelkova tree design

Artist (Japanese, born 1949)
Date2012
Mediumstoneware with inlay and platinum overglaze
Dimensions41.9 x 24.4 x 15.2 cm (16 1/2 x 9 5/8 x 6 in.)
ClassificationsCeramics
Credit LineGift of Saeki Moriyoshi through TOBI and Onishi Gallery
Object number2013.46
Label TextBorn to a sculptor father in Utsunomiya city, Saeki Moriyoshi began studying ceramics in the Department of Crafts at the Tokyo national University of Fine Arts and Music where he graduated with a master's degree in 1977. His talents were quickly recognized even as a student through participation in juried competitions such as the Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition. After working at a commercial pottery studio in Mashiko, Saeki established his own kiln in 1981 and has since been working there independently. Saeki is one of a handful of ceramists who work with inlays or zogan, a decorative technique in which incised motifs on the surface of the bisque are filled with different colors or types of clay. He is, however, fluent in both pictorial and abstract patterning in his works and is especially known for the poetic landscape imagery he creates on his vessels with the exquisite inlay techniques. Saeki's signature images on his vessels are Japanese landscapes of lakes, forests (especially of Japanese zelkova trees), and mountains executed in this inlay technique, and not with enamel painting techniques typically used to create such images. In addition to ceramic production, Saeki is involved with education of the younger generations through academic programs and by participating in artist exchange programs in China, Korea, and Japan.
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