Makers · 作家 · Tokoname
Eimei
英明b. 1960
Son of 耀山, a glaze man of standing in Tokoname. He went to the research stations before he went to the wheel, and from about 1990 worked at one idea: the same glaze firing two colours on one pot.
At a glance
- Art name
- Eimei 英明
- Real name
- 清水英明
- Born
- 1960
- Region
- Tokoname
- Father
- Yōzan 清水正和 — a pot maker, and a glaze man of standing in Tokoname
- 1979
- Studied at the Tokoname ceramics technology centre and the industrial technology institute
- 1980
- Researched glaze and ceramics at the Nagoya industrial testing station, Seto branch
- As of 2007
- More than twenty-five years of pot making behind him
- Range
- Glazed small and medium pots, up to about 17 gō — around 50 cm
- Method
- Rounds on the wheel; everything else press-moulded, taken thick and pared back
- Documented form
- An oval stamp, 英明
01 · 経歴 His life
The research station first, the wheel second
His father is Yōzan, a pot maker and a glaze man of standing in Tokoname.
He did not start at the bench. In 1979 he studied at the Tokoname ceramics technology centre and at the industrial technology institute; in 1980 he researched glaze and ceramics at the Nagoya industrial testing station’s Seto branch.
As of 2007 he had more than twenty-five years of pot making behind him.
Two aims are set out together: to be a good craftsman putting affordable goods within reach, and to express something of his own as a maker. The pots are made on both sides of that.
02 · 作風 The work
One glaze, two colours
From about 1990 he worked at oxidation-reduction firing. In a gas kiln one side of a pot faces the flame and the other does not; fire a single glaze on both and the two sides come out different colours. He went after that difference and worked up glaze colours of his own from it. As of 2007 the small-pot range was the result.
So a pot of his whose front and back differ is not a fault in the firing.
The range runs to glazed small and medium pots, up to about 17 gō — around 50 cm. Some are close to one-offs and some are made in numbers.
The forming divides: rounds are thrown on the wheel, everything else is press-moulded. The moulded pieces are taken thick and then pared back, so even the production work has hand finishing in it.
Beyond that: cat feet, painted decoration, unglazed clay pots. The range is wide.
Copper red runs through the work — three of the five pots currently known for him carry it. In Tokoname the manner is associated with Eimei and his father. A Shūzan example is also recorded, though it is described as very rare for Shūzan.
03 · 落款 The mark
Kiln name above (recorded as 耀山窯), with 英明 below.
Two marks, one foot
英明 — an oval stamp, two characters one above the other, set inside an oval frame.
There are two marks on the pot shown here, and between them they make a relationship visible. Above, cut into the clay with a point, three characters: the kiln name — his father’s — which is recorded as 耀山窯. Below it, pressed in, his own oval seal.
He joined his father’s workshop in the Shōwa 50s and in time became the one doing the making, which is why pots carrying the kiln’s name can be his work. On this foot you do not have to infer it: the kiln’s name and the maker’s own seal are there one above the other.
Which also means the reverse. A pot marked only 耀山 may still be his.
04 · 代表作 Recorded works
Recorded works
Not for sale — works recorded for this maker.
| Work | Size (cm) |
|---|---|
| Oval, everted rim — white porcelain glaze, fine crazing across the whole surface | 9 × 8 × 3.5 |
| Lobed, straight-sided — green glaze, lighter where it is thin and running to black-green where it is thick | 8 × 6.5 × 2 |
| Square, outer rim, framed panel — celadon with copper-red run over it. The same design exists in rectangles, ovals and rounds, with more or less of the red | 9 × 5.5 |
| Round, bag form — copper-red glaze with some kiln-changed green in it | 8.5 × 6 |
| Rectangle, outer rim, framed panel — copper-red, kiln-changed. A trial piece from around 1990–91, when he was working towards oxidation firing; the colour he was after, and one of his main designs afterwards | 14.3 × 12.2 × 5 |
Available
Eimei pots in the collection
Each pot ships worldwide from Tokyo.
A kiln-changed copper-red framed-panel pot is not early work: that design begins around 1990. Send us a photograph of the foot and we will tell you what the marks say.