Makers · 作家 · Saitama
Masashi Furumoto
古本正志He was born into a family in the bonsai trade, and began making pots at eighteen. The serious work came later, at the Fukuda workshop.
At a glance
- Name
- Furumoto Masashi 古本正志
- Real name
- The same — 古本正志
- Region
- Saitama
- Background
- Born into a family in the bonsai trade
- From eighteen
- Making pots
- Then
- Serious work at the Fukuda workshop フクダ工房
- Work
- Amber glaze over a 篭目文 basket-weave relief
- Observed forms
- A square seal and a gourd-shaped impression, both reading 正志
01 · 経歴 Where he came from
The trade first, the clay second
He was born into a family in the bonsai business, and began making pots at eighteen.
The serious work came later, at a workshop written in katakana as フクダ工房. The workshop name is written in katakana on the pots: フクダ工房.
02 · 作風 The work
Amber over a basket weave
His recorded work is one idea: an ame glaze — amber — laid over a 篭目文 basket-weave relief, cut proud of the wall.
The bodies differ. A sword-lobed piece is built on a black-clay-like body, which takes the amber so deep that it reads almost as a black glaze. Two near-identical lobed pieces are on a red-clay-like body, with green run over parts of the surface.
A hexagon carries the same design, with green on part of the upper rim and the lower wall: a sharp outline against a rough, countrified relief. The relief is carried onto the underside of the pot as well.
The relief is carried onto the underside as well.
If you are ever offered a Furumoto hexagon, that is the thing to ask for a photograph of.
03 · 落款 The mark
The second mark: a gourd, not a square
Two marks, so far
He signs with his given name. Two of his marks are currently known.
One is a square seal reading 正志 — Masashi.
The other is the one photographed here: a gourd-shaped impression reading 正志, two rounded lobes with a waist between them. It is not a square, and the strokes stand proud of the clay, which means the seal itself was cut in intaglio.
So the two differ in form and not in what they say. How they relate is not settled.
A maker can use more than one mark, and one documented impression is not necessarily all of them.
04 · 代表作 Recorded works
Recorded works
Not for sale — works recorded for this maker. Two of the four carry measurements.
| Work | Size (cm) |
|---|---|
| Sword-lobed, outer rim — amber glaze over basket-weave relief, on a black-clay-like body | — |
| Lobed, outer rim — amber over basket-weave, red-clay-like body, green run over part of the surface | — |
| Lobed, outer rim — near enough the same mould again | 13.5 × 12.5 × 6 |
| Hexagon, outer rim — amber over basket-weave, green on the upper rim and lower wall. The relief is carried onto the underside | 14.5 × 6 |
Available
Furumoto pots in the collection
Each pot ships worldwide from Tokyo.