Ishida Shoseki

She needed pots, so she made them

She was in the satsuki trade, growing azaleas as a business.

In 1969 she entered ceramics under the potter 磯博. She began making small pots at fifty, for a stated purpose: pots to suit the satsuki she was selling.

She then went to Imari, learning the wheel from 馬場文祥 and painting from 宮崎陶里. She opened her own kiln in 1978.

Her art name came from her teacher: the 祥 is one character out of 馬場文祥’s own name.

Her enthusiasm for small-pot work did not change for the rest of her life. She died in 2005, aged eighty.

Old Imari, at the size of a pot

Her forming and her painting both sit inside the tradition.

What she painted: old-Imari patterning, landscapes, animals, figures. There are sets built on the fifty-three stations of the Tōkaidō, a series after the Chōjū-giga animal scrolls, and bean pots the size of a fingertip.

A documented brushed form

祥石 — Shōseki.

One mark form documented for her is a brushed 祥石 signature, written in a running hand. Two examples of this form have been observed; other forms may exist.

Shōseki is more than one maker. There is 石田祥石 of Ibaraki, on this page. There is a Matsumoto Shōseki written 松石 — different characters entirely. And there is a ゆうき祥石 kiln, separate again. No relationship between the three is established. They are listed in our index of marks.