Red and Green on a Square Bottle Attributed to Hamada Shōji

Square Bottle with Red and Green Overglaze

Red lines cross the flat faces of this tall, square bottle, and green enamel sits over them in splashes that have run into drips. Bands of red and green circle the shoulder and middle, on a speckled off-white glaze.

The bottle is labelled as the work of Hamada Shōji (濱田庄司, 1894 to 1978), made in 1947. No record confirms either.

Red Overglaze and Square Bottles

The form and decoration match a type typical of Hamada: the square bottle with red overglaze (赤絵). The Japan Folk Crafts Museum, which holds about 450 of his works, has red-enamelled square bottles among them.

Hamada, based in Mashiko from 1924, was a central figure of the Mingei (folk craft) movement, and Mingei rather than wabi-sabi is the frame his work belongs to.

Quieter pieces labelled as his include a bowl with iron brushwork and a banded cup.

This bottle is loud with red and green. What EngiCrafts has in stock is the quiet counterpart: matte black and wood-fired forms that leave the flowers to do the talking.