Bowl with Design of Figs and Leaves, ca. 1990

  • Ito Motohiko, Japanese, born 1939

Clay, cloth, ink, colors, ash glaze

  • Overall: 5 × 15 1/4 inches (12.7 × 38.7 cm)

Founders Society Purchase with funds from Mr. and Mrs. Stanford C. Stoddard

1994.27

Itō Motohiko is an artist specializing in tableware decorated with powerful, evocative distillations of natural beauty. This contemporary bowl continues the traditions of the Rimpa style. Its shape echoes that of Kōrin’s favored round-fan format, which had a profound influence on the circular ceramic compositions by Kōrin’s younger brother, Ogata Kenzan. The principle of using a selected vignette from nature in a carefully orchestrated space is seen in all their work.

Signed, inside lid of box: Motohiko saku

Inscribed, on bottom: To Inscribed, on bottom: friend box Inscribed, outside of box lid: Nunome ichijiku mon hachi

Dr. Frederick Baekeland (New York, New York, USA)

1994-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Ito Motohiko, Bowl with Design of Figs and Leaves, ca. 1990, clay, cloth, ink, colors, ash glaze. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase with funds from Mr. and Mrs. Stanford C. Stoddard, 1994.27.