Gorgeous Effigy by Masamichi in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2023

吉川正道　華俑

Title: Gorgeous Effigy (Kayō)

Artist: Yoshikawa Masamichi (Japanese, born 1946)

Period: Heisei period (1989–2019)

Date: 2003

Culture: Japan

Medium: Porcelain with pale-blue glaze (seihakuji)

Dimensions: 9 7/8 × 17 5/16 × 17 5/16 in. (25.1 × 44 × 44 cm)

Classification: Ceramics

Credit Line: Gift of Halsey and Alice North, 2017

Accession Number: 2017.166.23


In this work, Yoshikawa successfully combined the purity of porcelain with a love of texture, carved surfaces, and architectural forms. He left his clay thickly modeled with uneven surfaces and generously applied pale-blue seihakuji glaze, creating carefully controlled drips around the base. While celadons are traditionally celebrated for their sharp forms, Yoshikawa creates bold sculptures covered with pooling and dripping seihakuji glaze. This porcelain sculpture calls to mind Korean ceramics of the later Joseon period (17th–19th century), but the idea of a ceramic house model has much earlier precedents, suggesting that this abstract compound might have been inspired by Chinese pottery buildings of the Han dynasty. Based in Tokoname, Yoshikawa also creates blue-and-white functional works.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/724747