Tsubo Vase by Yukico Yamada.

Made in Kyoto, Japan.

_ Dimensions

Height ~ 23.5cm

Width ~ 10cm (widest) ~ 2.5cm (narrowest)

Depth ~ 8.5cm

_ Care: wash gently with water and light detergent. Please do not use in the dishwasher.

_Bio: Moisture accumulating on a leaf, a soft wind moving through a forest, and filtered sunlight touching a broken rock surface. Yukico Yamada on observing nature. These moments set the opening scenes for the tales her hands tell. Palms mould the figures, fingers give character, strokes of glaze add language. Her manifestation of another world reminds us of the spirit in all natural objects, forming the link between our experience and the world of the spirits just beyond our knowing.

Yamada’s vase forms teeter on the edge of reality, skewed edges, temple dwellings, handles for the smallest of hands, parapets leading the viewer to nowhere, caught in the mist. Tea vessels given one stroke, like a mark made on a stone wall, forgotten counting and unread messages left by spirit figures. Their out-of-proportion legs scurrying in front of you as the tales Yamada tells slowly become dream.

Yukico Yamada imagines her ceramic stories from the old capital of Japan - Kyōto. Building by hand and editing with her fingers throughout the process, adding subtle glaze before firing in her electric kiln. Yamada’s work is exhibited throughout Japan and now at TÜR in Auckland, New Zealand.