Broken Flower Vase by Shiro Tsujimura embodies the raw spirit of Iga ware, a pottery tradition rooted in one of Japan’s oldest ceramic centers. Iga is renowned for its coarse, iron-rich clay, which is highly resistant to heat and uniquely responsive to long wood firings.
Tsujimura builds his vessels with intention and restraint, then entrusts them to the fire, often firing as potters did a thousand years ago by stacking wood directly around the work. In this process, flame, ash, and gravity intervene: forms may warp, collapse, or fracture entirely. Rather than discard these results, Tsujimura embraces them as expressions of nature’s will. Ash melting into feldspar and siliceous stone produces vivid green vidro glaze, while trapped moisture creates playful air bubbles across the surface. What begins in order becomes chaotic, yet the finished work radiates calm – an affirmation of wabi-sabi, where imperfection, chance, and transformation generate quiet beauty and positive energy.
