Makers · 作家 · Mikawa
Sanshū Ichiyō
三琇一陽1902–1985
Sanshū Ichiyō came from Takahama, in the Mikawa region of Aichi. In 1932 he began producing from a leased ceramics testing station in Mikawa. He left pottery in 1937 and returned decades later. Sanshū Ichiyō is his art name.
At a glance
- Art name
- Sanshū Ichiyō 三琇一陽
- Reading
- さんしゅう いちよう
- Real name
- 神谷恒一
- Lived
- 1902–1985
- From
- Takahama 高浜, Aichi — Mikawa 三河
- Earlier work
- Bonsai-pot business, Tokyo
- Production from 1932
- Five-year rent-free lease of a ceramics testing station in Mikawa
- Left pottery
- 1937, for precision engineering
- Later years
- Returned to pottery; mainly small pots
- Known for
- An oval water tray, sometimes called the Ichiyō type 一陽型
- Documented forms
- Four currently documented — 一陽 in square, oval and round stamps; 三琇園一陽 in a square stamp
01 · 経歴 His life
From dealer to production
Sanshū Ichiyō 三琇一陽 was born in 1902 and died in 1985. His real name was 神谷恒一.
From a young age he helped his father, a wholesaler of ceramics. By the early Shōwa years he had his own bonsai-pot business in Ebisu, Tokyo.
To develop pots of his own design, he made small-scale models and had kilns produce them to scale. This caused problems, and he came to want a kiln of his own.
In 1932, when a ceramics testing station in Mikawa was facing closure, he took a five-year rent-free lease on it and began producing there.
His art name 三琇 was based on 三州, an older name for the Mikawa region; the two are written with different characters.
In 1937 he left pottery for precision engineering. He returned to pottery decades later, after stepping back from the business he had built. In these later years he made mainly small pots.
02 · 一陽型 The Ichiyō type
An oval with a swell
Encouraged to make water trays, he took clay and tools to another workshop and worked out the form there by hand.
Water trays had mainly been koban-shaped, a flattened oval, with walls rising straight up. He changed this to an oval whose walls flare slightly outward, with a gentle swell, making the tray a better setting for viewing stones.
This oval is sometimes called the Ichiyō type, 一陽型.
He made comparatively few water trays. Small pots were made in much greater numbers.
His pre-war pots are almost all in Mikawa clay.
03 · 落款 The mark
Four documented forms
Four mark forms are currently documented for him. Other forms may exist.
Three are stamps reading 一陽: square, oval and round. The fourth is a square stamp reading 三琇園一陽.
The dates below describe when a mark form was in use, not when a particular pot was made.
| Mark | Reading | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 一陽 | Ichiyō — square stamp | Pre-war; the earliest of the documented forms. |
| 一陽 | Ichiyō — oval stamp | Used from 1933. Based on a seal he was given. |
| 一陽 | Ichiyō — round stamp | Cut on the same original seal as the oval stamp, one at each end. |
| 三琇園一陽 | Square stamp | Also used after the war. |
Reading a mark
What we can — and cannot — tell you
Send a clear photograph of the underside and we will tell you what the mark says.
We do not issue authentications, and where a mark is beyond what we can read, we will say so rather than guess.