Makers · 作家 · Tokoname
Shibakatsu
柴勝b. 1943
A small-pot kiln with an unusual reach: more than five hundred variations of colour and form, said to have built up in response to what customers asked for. And two documented stamped forms of the same name.
Available from YAKUMO JAPAN
Explore Shibakatsu Pots on eBay →At a glance
- Art name
- Shibakatsu 柴勝
- Real name
- 柴田勝一
- Born
- 1943
- Region
- Tokoname 常滑
- Entered the trade
- 1968
- Kiln
- Shibakatsu-en 柴勝苑, founded 1977
- Sizes
- 2–9 gō — mostly 6–27 cm
- Bodies
- Tokoname vermilion, purple and grey clays; glazed ware
- Centre of the work
- Small pots
01 · 転換 The turn
From production ware to handwork
He entered the trade in 1968 and opened his own kiln, Shibakatsu-en, in 1977, making tree pots. The earlier output was mainly press-moulded production ware.
Later, the main methods moved the other way, to slab-building and press-moulding done by hand.
The range recorded runs from unglazed Tokoname clays — vermilion, purple, grey — through to glazed pots.
押型量産から、タタラと押型による手づくりへ。
02 · 小鉢 Small pots
More than five hundred variations
The pots are small. Many fall between about 6 and 27 cm across, with small pots the centre of the work rather than a sideline.
Counting glazed and unglazed pots together, more than five hundred variations of colour and form are recorded — said to have built up in response to what customers asked for.
More than five hundred variations of colour and form.
In later years he also began adding applied decoration.
03 · 落款 The mark
Two documented marks, one name
Both documented marks read the same name. They are not interchangeable.
One is documented in connection with the earlier press-moulded production ware. The other is documented in connection with the handmade work, and is described as a mark put on as evidence of the new direction.
| Mark | Reading | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 柴勝 | Stamped | Documented in connection with the handmade work, as a mark of the new direction. |
| 柴勝 | Stamped | Documented in connection with the earlier press-moulded production ware. |
Before you rely on it
Two impressions are documented here. Other forms may exist. Telling them apart requires a direct view of the mark; a listing photograph may not be enough.
04 · 培養 Inside the pot
A detail on one of the recorded pots
It is worth knowing about, because it is invisible once a tree is in the pot.
On the white kōchi mokkō below, the inside wall was scored with a spatula while the body was still soft, to roughen it. It is done for the tree rather than the eye: a rough inner wall helps fine roots develop, and helps the clay take up water.
It is noted of that pot. Whether he does it on all of them is not established.
05 · 代表作 Recorded works
Recorded works
Not for sale — five works recorded for this maker, all of them small.
| Work | Size (cm) |
|---|---|
| Kin-glazed rectangle, outer rim, indented corners — after the Shōkōdō form, one of the finest of the later Chinese imports. The Shōkōdō original exists only in purple clay, with no glazed version. Growers of small bonsai wanted one they could put a broadleaf tree in, and this answers that. Other colours of it exist | 16 × 13.5 × 5 |
| White kōchi-glazed mokkō — a copy of an old Chinese pot, with ruri and oribe versions of the same form. Small, and nothing skimped in the finishing. This is the piece whose inside wall is scored with a spatula | 16 × 13.5 × 6 |
| Flow-patterned glaze, hexagon — the pattern recalls marbled ink, or tree rings. It is not drawn on: some method of glazing related to takatori is suspected. Bold even by the standards of his glazed pots, and it works as an accent on a display shelf | 10.5 × 4.9 |
| Straight-sided square, Tokoname purple clay — very thin-walled, with the same slight curve in the body as the piece below. Simple, and sharper than simple | 8 × 7.5 |
| Kin-glazed straight-sided form, kiln-changed — a slight curve in the body takes the dullness out of the shape. The mottling, and the glaze divided into sections like kakewake, both read as landscape | 8.5 × 14.5 |
Available
Shibakatsu pots in the collection
Each pot ships worldwide from Tokyo.
Send us a photograph of the underside and we will tell you what the mark says.