A Plate with Swirling Glaze, Attributed to Kawai Kanjirō

Plate with Swirling Glaze

Broad curls of dark brown-black and glossy cream turn across the centre of this plate, like a pinwheel with its arms bent. Around them, the rim is a band of tan and amber.

The plate is labelled as the work of Kawai Kanjirō (河井寬次郎, 1890 to 1966) and dated 1963. We have not found a museum record for it, so its title, date and holder are unconfirmed.

Brush, Trail or Flung Glaze?

This plate has been described as painted with brushstrokes of iron glaze. The photograph does not settle how the glaze was applied. In his last years, Kawai used flung and dripped glazes, called uchigusuri (打薬). The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto holds bowls of 1963 titled 三色打薬碗, "three-colour flung glaze", which are among his late works. The swirls here may come from that kind of technique, or from trailing, rather than from a brush. Without a record of the plate, we cannot say which.

The materials are also unconfirmed, so we do not name the glaze or the body.

The Potter

Kawai was a leading figure in the Mingei (folk craft) movement. If the date is right, this plate comes from three years before his death.

For other Kawai pieces, see a vase known from an exhibition flyer, a tea bowl and what its black-and-white photograph cannot tell us, and a 1942 bowl painted in cobalt and copper red.

Whatever made those swirls, this glaze is all movement. The pieces we deliver with EngiCrafts' darker glazes stay still by comparison, in matte black and wood-fired surfaces on uneven forms meant for daily use.