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Manga Oribe: Fuminori Fukami, Mino and Seto
Updated: Oct 28
A green dragon bends around an orange field. Two comic-style figures, a spiral and scattered flowers keep the eye moving, while a broad black rim holds the scene together. The appeal of this Fuminori Fukami plate lies in that meeting of exuberant drawing and a substantial ceramic frame. It also raises a useful question: what does the word Oribe bring to a contemporary work?
A history with more than one place
The Metropolitan Museum of Art places the emergence of Oribe ceramics in the late sixteenth century, during Japan's Momoyama period. Associated with the tea master Furuta Oribe, these wares brought bold shapes, strong colours and playful designs into tea culture. Green is famous, but historical Oribe also includes black and other colours; the name does not describe a single green glaze.
The historical geography matters. Mino, in present-day Gifu Prefecture, was a major centre of this production. Gifu Prefecture's account of ceramics excavated at the Motoyashiki kiln site identifies several Oribe types, including Black Oribe and Green Oribe. A style that can look freely inventive also rests on the material evidence of specific workshops and kilns.
Seto is a different place, in Aichi Prefecture. The city identifies itself as one of Japan's Six Ancient Kiln centres, with a ceramic history extending over a thousand years. The Met's Oribe exhibition also included Oribe-type wares made around Seto in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The story therefore includes later revivals and new settings, alongside the earlier Mino wares.
These distinctions make the subject richer. A birthplace, a production region and the name of a ceramic style can connect, but they do not mean the same thing. Looking at a new work need not collapse several centuries into one uninterrupted line.
Fukami's own route into the image
Fukami was born in Seto in 1980. Bunkindo's artist biography records his training at Seto's ceramics school and subsequent study with Kishimoto Kennin. His connection with the region is concrete, while the imagery on his Manga Oribe offers a distinctly personal direction.
In a 2023 interview published by Matsuzakaya Nagoya, he traced his interest from ukiyo-e through studies of Hokusai Manga to anime characters. He also spoke of admiration for Suzuki Goro and Ikeda Shogo, and of continuing inherited approaches to Oribe, Shino and Seto Black alongside Manga Oribe. His account presents tradition as something to work with while developing new images.
Return to the plate after reading that account. Its drawing asks for close attention to line, gesture and shifts of scale. The dragon's small repeated scales contrast with long sweeping curves. The larger figure reaches towards us, while the spiral pulls attention inward. The textured rim sets another rhythm around the lively centre. That exchange gives the work its visual force.
The plate is a contemporary response within a wider ceramic conversation, rather than a copy of a Momoyama tea bowl. Historical Oribe's appetite for bold design offers a useful comparison; Fukami's own interview explains a more immediate source for his imagery. Keeping those two strands visible helps us appreciate both the distance travelled and the freedom of the result.
Look first at the black rim, then at the dragon and the figures. How does the surrounding ceramic surface change your experience of the drawing?
The illustrated handled work is shown for reference. The historical comparison does not establish its production date, clay, glaze recipe or firing method.
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