Painted by the hand of Zeko
Nakamura Gudo, 1900-1989 — actor, and a founding figure of the modern shohin bonsai movement.
| Maker | Zeko 是好 — Japan |
| Form | Round mame pot, softly ribbed wall, small cut feet 丸鉢 |
| Finish | Cream glaze with hand-painted overglaze stripes 色絵 |
| Condition | Brand New — unused, straight from Japan |
Vertical stripes run the whole way round the wall, brushed by hand in indigo, dusty rose and white over a warm cream ground. No two bands are the same width and the pigment thins where the brush lifted, so the pattern reads as painting rather than print. The wall is gently ribbed, which catches the light between the stripes, and the foot is cut away to leave three small feet. At 6.7 cm across it belongs to the mame and shohin end of the scale, where a pot is looked at as closely as the tree in it.
“Indigo, rose and white, laid on one stripe at a time.”
是好
Zeko was the ceramic and stage name of Nakamura Gudo (1900-1989), born in Saga and known first as a character actor in Japanese film and television.
FoundationsSent as a boy to the seminary of Daitoku-ji in Kyoto, he left at nineteen for the stage; the name Zeko comes from the Zen phrase nichi-nichi kore kojitsu, "every day is a good day". Shohin bonsai came to him through Sashichi Sugimoto, a set designer at Shochiku.
ProvenanceHe was a founding promoter of the Tokyo Amateur Shohin Bonsai Association in 1962 and later president of the national shohin association. He made small pots himself, commissioned them from potters such as Teruko Tsuji and Takahiro Hane, and in later years concentrated on painting bodies thrown by other kilns. His mark is the seal "矩", struck into the base of this pot.
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