Makers · 作家 · Kyoto
Tofukuji II
二代 平安東福寺1917 – 1995
He inherited one of the most admired names 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 his father's. It took ten years of effort before they came near.
At a glance
Drawn from the standard Japanese survey of bonsai ware. Where the record is unclear, we leave it out.
- Art name
- Tofukuji II 二代 平安東福寺
- Real name
- Isamu Mizuno 水野勇
- Dates
- 1917 – 1995
- Region
- Kyoto 京都
- Succeeded
- On his father’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
When the first Tofukuji died in 1970, the name passed to his son Isamu — who had spent his working life in haulage, not clay. He was fifty-three.
He began where anyone sensible would: with the material. He studied the body clay and the glazes his father had left behind, took lessons from a teacher at an art university to master the craft itself, and — on the advice of a son who had studied ceramics at technical high school — brought in an electric kiln.
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 his father's. The survey agrees with him.
The problem was not effort but physics. He mixed the body to his father's formula, but the glaze materials were not the same and neither was the kiln — so the pots never came out of the fire looking quite like the old ones. It took roughly ten years of work before they approached that level.
Then, rather than keep chasing a copy, he began to look for a manner of his own.
03 · 落款 The seals
One name, two hands
He inherited his father'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 stamped 二代 (nidai, “second”) or 勇 (Isamu, his given name). Those additions, not the main mark, are what date a 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. If you are looking at a Tofukuji seal with no 二代 or 勇 beside it, that is an argument for the first generation — not proof of it. See Heian Tofukuji for the seven marks he inherited.
Photographs of these marks on pots from our own stock will be added here. A mark in the hand rarely looks like a printed plate — clay, glaze pooling and wear all change it.
04 · 代表作 Documented works
Pieces recorded in the literature
Not for sale — these are the reference pieces published in the standard Japanese survey.
| Work | Size (cm) |
|---|---|
| Green-glazed rectangle, outer rim, twin lugs — a green his father never made | 23.2 × 18.4 × 10.8 |
| Ruri-glazed straight-sided oval — called his finest | 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 colour his father never used — his own formulation, and at 23 cm the largest thing recorded from a man who mostly made small pots.
The other is the ruri-glazed oval, which the survey calls the piece he most fully brought off. It has been used, and the years show on it well. Give it more age, the assessment runs, and it would not stand behind his father's work.
06 · 用語 Glossary
The words on the label
- 二代 nidai
- “Second generation” — added to a mark to separate son from father.
- 落款 rakkan
- The seal or signature beneath a pot.
- 瑠璃釉 ruri-yū
- Lapis blue, deep and even.
- 胎土 taido
- The body clay of a pot, as distinct from its glaze.
- 小品盆栽 shōhin bonsai
- Small bonsai — the pots he mostly made.
- 時代乗り jidai-nori
- The patina a pot takes on through years of use.
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.
Sources
盆器大図鑑【上巻】 Bonki Daizukan, Vol. 1, p. 54–55. Checked against pots handled by YAKUMO JAPAN. Last verified 18 July 2026.
Where the record is unclear we say so rather than guess.