25447 Recipient of the Order of Culture "Aoki Tenmoku" AOKI Ryuzan (Tenmoku)

Height (7.6cm) Diameter (11.3cm)

Since the latter half of the 16th century, the Aoki family has been in business for generations as potters at the Sotooyama Kiln and the Mio Iya Kiln, but in 1899 (Meiji 32), his grandfather Jinichiro developed the business into the Aoki Brothers Trading Company, which was involved in a wide range of ceramic manufacturing and sales, mainly for domestic and overseas trade. During his father's generation, the company was renamed Arita Ceramics, but later went bankrupt.
Ryuzan then decided to make a living as an individual artist, working as a freelance ceramic designer while aiming to have his work selected for the Nitten Exhibition.
In 1954 (Showa 29), he exhibited his work "Large Blue and White Plate with Floral Patterns" at the 10th Nitten Exhibition and was selected for the first time. Since then, he continued to have successively more wins, and rose to the top as a Nitten artist.
Located in Arita, a town famous for its dyed and painted wares, he consistently pursued the taut, rich forms of wide-mouthed porcelain, and with his modern designs featuring striped patterns made from iron sand, silver sand, blue, and green on jet-black Tenmoku glaze, he broke new ground, mainly with flower vases, and became a representative Arita ware artist.
He never took on any apprentices in his life, but continued to fire Tenmoku pottery with his wife Ayako (who passed away in 2007), and became the first person to receive the Order of Culture from Saga, a home of pottery. He died of liver cancer on April 23, 2008, at the age of 81. He was awarded the rank of Junior Third Rank. The potter Aoki Kiyotaka is his eldest son.