Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) is renowned for his stone and bronze sculpture, his gardenlike installations in public spaces, and his furniture designs. Far less familiar, but no less important, is Noguchi's work in clay, which he executed in three intensive sessions in 1931, 1950, and 1952, all during visits to Japan. The pieces included in this elegant volume and the accompanying exhibition comprise the first major museum presentation of Isamu Noguchi's ceramics and the introduction of the work of major postwar Japanese ceramic artists with whom Noguchi collaborated or interacted. Supported by four linked essays and opulently illustrated in full color and black and white, Isamu Noguchi and Modern Japanese Ceramics highlights the sculptor's struggles with cultural identity and his experimentation with the conflicts between modernity and tradition. Noguchi's sculptures in the medium of clay reveal informal, spontaneous, and humorous aspects not visible in less flexible media such as bronze or stone. Through clay, Noguchi probed unresolved personal issues surrounding his ambiguous cultural identity as the son of a Japanese father and American mother. Because Noguchi made his ceramics in Japan, his work also creates links to a diversity of approaches within the ceramic world of Japan. These range from traditionalists such as Kitaoji Rosanjin and the Living National Treasure designates, to primitivists exemplified by Okamoto Taro and Tsuji Shindo, to avant-garde experimentalists led by the Sodeisha group. An understanding of the nature and scope of the concerns Noguchi expressed through clay is crucial to understanding his work as a whole, and consideration of Japanese ceramic artists in the 1950s reveals a largely unknown genre of modern Japanese art. Copublished with the Smithsonian Institution

Isamu Noguchi and Modern Japanese Ceramics: A Close Embrace of the Earth

Arts & Photography

Winther-Tamaki, Bert

Cort, Louise Allison

History & Criticism

University of California Press

Basketmaker in Rural Japan

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Kenji, Nakamura

Crafts & Hobbies

Diane Pub Co.

Gorgeous book; never used but sat on shelf for over ten years. No visible damages but in bright light you can age of cover, both front and back.

Seto and Mino Ceramics (Japanese Collections in the Freer Gallery of Art)

Freer Gallery of Art

This is a beautiful and informative book for anyone interested in the history of Japanese ceramics. There is also a good deal of interesting and useful technical analysis of the glazes used.

Seto and Mino ceramics (Japanese collections in the Freer Gallery of Art)

Other Media

Distributed by University of Hawaii Press

Book by Cort, Louise Allison, Kenji, Nakamura

A Basketmaker in Rural Japan

Antiques & Collectibles

Weatherhill

From the front flap of this 428-page book: "For over seven centuries, farmer-potters of Shigaraki, a rural valley outside the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto, have used the distinctive clays of the region to make a broad variety of storage jars and tea-ceremony wares that occupy a key place in the esteemed aesthetic of Japanese wood-fired stoneware. This classic and long out-of-print study by Louise Cort brings together all facets of the valley's fascinating political, economic, and artistic history to present a comprehensive portrait of these appealing wares and the potters who produced them. Throwing, glazing, firing, and kiln building are described in detail, while invaluable supplemental information includes commentaries on Shigaraki wares by potters from outside the valley; an account of early twentieth-century life in the valley by a woman who was both the daughter and wife of master potters; a thorough assessment of kiln-site investigations; and complete formulas for the distinctive Shigaraki glazes. Over 350 color and monochrome photographs, maps, complete appendixes, notes, bibliography, and an index make this an essential volume in the library of all connoisseurs of ceramics."

Shigaraki: Potters' Valley

This is a study of one of the most influential ceramic traditions to emerge from Japan. It details the site of Shigaraki, its valuable wares and the potters who produced them, from their beginnings in the 10th century, to the present day. The farmer-potters of Shigaraki, a rural valley outside the ancient capital of Kyoto, have used distinctive local clays to produce fine wood-fired stoneware for over seven centuries. This study brings together all facets of the valley's fascinating political, economic and artistic history to present a comprehensive

Shigaraki, Potters' Valley

Kodansha USA Inc

This innovative book narrates the history of a single object―a tea-leaf storage jar created in southern China during the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries―and describes how its role changed after it was imported to Japan and passed from owner to owner there. In Japan, where the jar was in constant use for more than seven hundred years, it was transformed from a humble vessel into a celebrated object used in chanoyu (often translated in English as tea ceremony), renowned for its aesthetic and functional qualities, and awarded the name Chigusa. Few extant tea utensils possess the quantity and quality of the accessories associated with Chigusa, material that enables modern scholars and tea aficionados to trace the jar’s evolving history of ownership and appreciation. Tea diaries indicate that the lavish accessories―the silk net bag, cover, and cords―that still accompany the jar were prepared in the early sixteenth century by its first recorded owner.

Chigusa and the Art of Tea

Watsky, Andrew M.

Religion & Spirituality

Arthur M. Sackler and Freer Gallery of Art

This book is the first to describe in detail a community of potters working for the Jagannatha Temple in Puri. As a pilgrimage centre of national importance, the temple requires earthenware in great quantities for the creation and distribution of the sacred food, an integral feature of daily ritual and pilgrimage. This study observes the potters' technical prowess, sustained by devotion, and the accompanying DVD shows the artisans at work, demonstrating their skills and products.

Temple Potters of Puri

Mishra, Purna Chandra

Mapin Publishing Gp Pty Ltd

Vietnamese potters combined their own native genius with elements derived from neighboring cultures, including Cambodia, Champa, India, and especially China. Yet their decorative motifs, glaze types, production methods, and perhaps even attitudes toward potting differed distinctly from those of China. Using the excellent clay of the Red River valley--smooth, homogeneous, gray-white--they created the most sophisticated ceramic tradition of Southeast Asia. The most definitive study on Vietnamese ceramics to date, this volume is the collaborative effort of experts from around the world, including Vietnam, Japan, England, France, and the United States. They discuss the history and development of Vietnamese ceramics, kiln sites discovered in Vietnam, and technical questions. John Guy (Victoria &amp; Albert Museum, London) contributes essays on Vietnamese ceramics and cultural identity, and Vietnamese Ceramics in international trade. John Stevenson (Seattle Art Museum) explains the historical context and examines the ivory-glazed wares of the Ly and Tran dynasties. Louise Cort (Smithsonian Institution) analyzes Vietnamese ceramics in Japanese contexts, while Regina Krahl (British Museum) shares her expertise on Vietnamese blue-and-white and polychrome traditions. Asako Morimoto (Fukuoka Museum) describes the kilns of northern Vietnam. The book contains additional essays by Philippe Truong of the Louvre, Trian Nguyen of UC Berkeley, and Peter Lam of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Lastly, Nguyen Dinh Chien of the Hanoi Historical Museum and John Guy address chronological issues and list dated and datable ancient Vietnamese ceramics.

Vietnamese Ceramics: A Separate Tradition

Stevenson, John

Guy, John.

Art Media Resources Ltd

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Books by Cort, Louise Allison