Yohen Sculptural Vase — Ken Matsuzaki
Ken Matsuzaki
Reference JPN-HIS-003
About the work
A tall sculptural stoneware vase attributed to Ken Matsuzaki's Yohen practice, combining sharply articulated geometry with a surface transformed by ash, heat and kiln atmosphere. Olive, amber, grey and dark brown passages move across the angular body, softening its architectural severity with an unpredictable material skin.
Detail
This sculptural vase is built around a tension between geometry and kiln-driven transformation. Sharply cut planes rise from an asymmetrical, triangular base through a strong horizontal division into a narrowing silhouette that culminates in an irregular, split opening — a structure that reads as architectural rather than as conventional pottery. Across the body, translucent olive, amber, grey and dark brown passages overlap and shift in density, with fine incisions and traces of flowing material interrupting the otherwise rigid planes, so that deliberate geometry and unpredictable, ash-driven glaze appear to compete for control of the same surface. That relationship is central to Ken Matsuzaki's broader stoneware practice, which draws on Oribe, Shino, Kiseto and Yohen firing traditions and places particular value on the visual changes produced through kiln atmosphere and natural ash glaze. The vase therefore cannot be read through form alone: its architecture sets the framework, while the firing determines how that framework is finally seen.
About the series
The work begins with a controlled, almost constructed geometry — planes, seams and angled supports suggesting architecture rather than pottery — before firing destabilizes that certainty, as colour accumulates unevenly and ash-transformed surfaces thicken in some areas and recede in others.