Minegishi Seikō

(1952-2023)

MINEGISHI SEIKŌ was born in Saitama Prefecture in 1952. He specialized in notoriously difficult craquelure celadon glaze on a wide range of vessel forms. His thickly applied glazes spanned the classical range of celadon colors from pale green to gray to beige and are characterized by kan’nyū, or deep crackling that serves to accentuate his elegant forms.

Minegishi didn’t originally work in celadon glazes but in kohiki vessels (an iron-rich body covered by thin white slip glazes) modeled on early Korean pun’chong wares. After seeing a Chinese celadon bowl in the Tokyo National Museum, he began to research celadon and examine all the classical celadon collections in Japan, Taiwan and Korea. After visually digesting these collections, Minegishi started experimenting with his clay and a variety of celadon glaze techniques. Five years later, he found the right method to create the deep crackles that are the signature of Guan wares. He also succeeded in creating deep reddish-purple lines that suffused the crackled glaze and have become one of his signature aesthetics.