Makers · 作家 · Kyoto
Tofukuji II
二代 平安東福寺1917 – 1995
He inherited a widely collected name in Japanese bonsai pottery at fifty-three, having spent his working life in haulage. By his own account the early pots fell well short of the first Tofukuji's. It took ten years of effort before they came near.
At a glance
- Art name
- Tofukuji II 二代 平安東福寺
- Real name
- 水野勇
- Dates
- 1917 – 1995
- Region
- Kyoto 京都
- Succeeded
- On the first Tofukuji’s death, aged 53
- Earlier career
- Haulage 運送業
- Kiln
- Electric, adopted on his son’s advice
- Known for
- Small pots; a green of his own
01 · 襲名 A late start
Fifty-three, and starting again
On the first Tofukuji's death the name passed to Mizuno Isamu, 水野勇, who had spent his working life in haulage rather than in clay. He was fifty-three.
He started with the material. He studied the body clay and the glazes the first Tofukuji had left behind, and learned the craft itself from a teacher at an art university; on the advice of a son who had come through the ceramics course at high school, he brought in an electric kiln.
He died of lung cancer in 1995, aged 78, after four years of illness.
運送業から、五十三歳の再出発。
02 · 十年 The ten years
The same clay, a different fire
His own verdict on the early work was blunt: it fell far short of the first Tofukuji's.
He mixed the body to the first Tofukuji's formula, but the glaze materials were not the same and neither was the kiln — so the pots did not come out of the fire looking quite like the old ones. It took ten hard years to come near the first Tofukuji's level.
Then he began to look for a manner of his own.
03 · 落款 The mark
One name, two hands
He inherited the first Tofukuji's marks and went on using them. That would have made the two generations impossible to separate — so he added something.
Alongside the inherited mark he used 二代 (nidai, “second”) or 勇, his given name. Those additions, not the main mark, are what separate the two generations. An addition such as 二代 or 勇 can identify the second Tofukuji; it does not by itself date the pot.
| Mark | Reading | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 平安東福寺 ＋ 二代 | Heian Tofukuji — nidai | The inherited formal mark with “second generation” added. |
| 楓に東福寺 ＋ 二代 | Tofukuji in the maple — nidai | The maple seal, likewise marked. |
A warning worth repeating
The main mark alone tells you the name, not the generation. A Tofukuji seal with no 二代 and no 勇 beside it does not identify the generation by itself, because he inherited the first Tofukuji's marks and went on using them. It tells you the name and nothing more. See Heian Tofukuji for seven documented forms of the inherited marks.
04 · 代表作 Recorded works
Recorded works
Not for sale — works recorded for this maker.
| Work | Size (cm) |
|---|---|
| Green-glazed rectangle, outer rim, twin lugs — a green the first Tofukuji did not have | 23.2 × 18.4 × 10.8 |
| Ruri-glazed straight-sided oval — thought to be one of his most fully realised works | 16.7 × 13.1 × 3.2 |
| Green-glazed studded round | 12.2 × 6 |
| Green-glazed rectangle, outer rim | 13.5 × 11.4 × 5.2 |
| Pear-skin clay, inner rim, straight-sided rectangle | 5.3 × 3.5 × 2.7 |
| Kusa-kin-glazed rectangle, outer rim | 7 × 6 × 3 |
05 · 会心 His own
Where he arrived
Two pieces mark the distance he travelled. The twin-lugged green rectangle carries a tone of green the first Tofukuji did not have — his own working-out of it, and at 23 cm among the largest sizes recorded for a man who mostly made small pots.
The other is the ruri-glazed oval, thought to be one of the pieces he most fully brought off. It has been used, and the years sit on it well. Give it more age, the assessment runs, and it would not stand behind the first Tofukuji's work.
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 — including whether 二代 or 勇 appears beside it.
We do not issue authentications, and where a mark is beyond what we can read, we will say so rather than guess.