Large multi-faceted vase by Ko TAKENAKA

A globular multi-faceted jar in white porcelain, the wide rounded body divided by twenty-four broad, deeply cut vertical facets rising from a narrow foot ring to a short, plain neck. The glaze is an even, satiny hakuji white with a soft sheen, in keeping with the artist’s engagement with Joseon-dynasty Korean white porcelain. The surface is clean and undisturbed. The base bears an incised mark reading “Take,” an abbreviated signature using the first character of the artist’s name, applied under the glaze. Accompanied by the original tomobako, the lid inscribed in the artist’s hand “Hakuji Mentori Otsubo” (White Porcelain Faceted Large Jar) on the exterior, and signed and sealed “Takenaka Ko zo” (made by Takenaka Ko) on the interior.

Takenaka Ko was born in Fukui Prefecture in 1941. As a young man he became fascinated with Joseon-dynasty Korean white porcelain after seeing a water dropper in a Kyoto stationery shop window, a discovery that led him to pursue ceramics. At nineteen he apprenticed under Kondo Yuzo, a Living National Treasure in Japanese ceramics. In 1970 he built his own kiln and established an independent practice in the Yamashina district of Kyoto. He was first selected for the Nihon Dento Kogei Ten (Japan Traditional Kogei Exhibition) in 1966, and continued to exhibit there throughout his career, developing a body of work centered on faceted and chip-carved (shinogi) forms that emphasize restrained, precise silhouettes and the beauty of white porcelain glaze surfaces. In 1992 a work by the artist entered the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. He was later recognized as a holder of the Kyoto Prefecture Intangible Cultural Property designation for ceramics. He died in 2024.