HIBIKI 35 YEARS KUTANI
Tokuda was born as Masahiko and started potting at 18; he took the potter’s name Yasokichi in 1988. His grandfather, the first Yasokichi (1873-1957), rediscovered many of Kutani’s lost traditional glazes and for that was made an Intangible Cultural Property by the government. Granddad’s work was so skillful that his pieces were hard to distinguish from the Ko-Kutani (Old Kutani) and Yoshidaya styles, the epitome of Kutani up to that point.
Tokuda Yasokichi III made and designed the bottle of Yosai named "Hekiyo"
Tokuda has given his glazes different names such as yosai (“gleaming colors”) and hekimei (“clear blue”). Like any potter whose glazes dominate the work, he must keep the forms simple so they do not compete. In the current exhibition the large hachi, tsubo (jars) and hanaire (vases) are straightforward. But the colors!
