241 - Michio Koinuma (1936–2021)

Michio Koinuma (1936–2021) Wall Vase Ash-glazed stoneware Label with the artist’s stamp on the base. Date of creation: circa 1970 H 19 W 8.5 D 6 cm Accompanied by its paulownia box signed by the artist. Biography: Michio Koinuma, born in Tokyo, first studied economics before devoting himself to ceramics at the age of thirty-three. Inspired by archaeology as well as by Hamada Shōji and Kamoda Shōji, he settled in Mashiko, where he opened his own kiln in 1970. His work is internationally recognized and was celebrated in 2022 during the exhibition “Koinuma Michio and His Age” at the Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art. Koinuma creates his works without a potter’s wheel, favoring hand-building and coil-building techniques. This method lends his forms a strong physicality. His pieces, shaped from dark clay, often evoke the density of eroded stone or corroded metal. Even when glazed, they exude a sense of mass and solidity, inviting the viewer to experience their archaic, earthy, and timeless character. Archaeological memory lies at the heart of his surfaces, which sometimes seem to be relics unearthed from forgotten ruins, marked by the passage of time. Yet their forms remain profoundly modern, at times almost otherworldly in their geometry. This tension between the ancient and the contemporary is one of the essential characteristics of her work. His inspirations draw heavily on the remains of ancient civilizations: animal sculptures, fantastical objects, vases reminiscent of archaic Chinese funerary bronzes, or clay figures from the Jōmon period discovered in funerary contexts in Japan. Each creation thus defies simple classification, moving between different time periods and cultural spaces.