Pots from Tokoname

I purchased four small pots at Tokoname last month. The first three have a scene painted on and were really inexpensive. There is a small group of what looks like four separate chops on the rectangular pot, but I am not sure they can be made out. These all came from the same seller.
The fourth pot is only a little larger and came from a different shop. It was by itself about five times more expensive than all three of the others combined. It is signed.
I don’t need any pots and they are heavy to bring back on the airline, also expensive to ship and might get broken, so I only bought these few small pots as souvenirs.

Billy M. Rhodes wrote:IThe fourth pot is only a little larger and came from a different shop. It was by itself about five times more expensive than all three of the others combined. It is signed.

That's because it's by Yamaaki, and it's 10 times better than all the others combined! And upside down too.

Thanks for the information. Is Yamaaki a person? I think we met the potter. It seemed to be a family operation.
This is the potter.

It's the name the Kataoka family uses. I believe this would be Kataoka, Toshio. The signature part reads "Shousen-yaki Yamaaki-zou". I have a Tokoname catalog with from the 80's with chops and signatures in the back and thankfully I had enough sense to translate the hiragana back when I used-to-could read it. That chop must be newer than my catalog, the signature is there but that chop isn't.

We were told that the number of kilns in Tokoname was greatly reduced. Maybe they are using a different kiln to fire their work. I didn't see a kiln in the shop we visited. Also based upon what we saw they are using propane or electricity to fire the pots. Smaller kilns appear to electric and larger propane. (or some kind of bottled gas)
Some of the operations have moved to Vietnam or China. Our guide's family owned a business that made bathroom fixtures and his operation is all in Vietnam.

That doesn't surprise me. It may be that a lot of the older potter have died or retired, or a reflection of the economy and good pots from China - or all or those factors, but there is a big difference between the new catalogs and those from the 80's and 90's. But after all these years there probably should be a difference.

Many Tokoname potters have stopped producing because of the economy and the lack of interest in Japan. With the market down, there's no reason to buy new production pots when old ones with a patina are cheaper. That is a newer Yamaki chop, Toshio. I know after 100 years Senkoen stopped producing pots, that's a big deal!

Well said Ryan. I think Tokoname's future is in it's new potters that are willing to step away from the "ordinary" - and I don't mean that as a derogetory comment. Like you said, there are SO MANY wonderful, very high quality older pots for sale, why make - or buy - new ones? It's the story of supply and demand, and will the established bonsai community accept anything "new"? Certainly not at Kokufu-ten. The market is saturated.

Also well said Russ!
Did you get that email I sent with the photo of your pot finishing up at auction? Holy moly!

Holy Crap! Am I seeing that right? Starting at 10,000 yen and ending at 151,000 yen?

Holy Crap!

Yes, you saw that correctly. $2,000!!!!!

Billy,
Your pot design looked kind of familiar to me. Here is one that i never got around to using.
Dale

Dale

Your pot is nice and larger than mine I think. I paid about $75 for mine, which is a lot for such as small pot. But, I wanted a nice memory of Tokoname, so.

nice pots, Dale would you be interested in selling it? let me know.