Tokuda Yasokichi III: Blue Gradations in a Yosai Bowl

Oct 18

3 min read

Updated: 4 hours ago

Tokuda Yasokichi III: a circle of changing blue

A bright blue ring draws the eye towards the deep, dark centre of this shallow bowl. Near the edge, pale cyan gives way to richer cobalt and near-black navy. Our handling record identifies the work as 耀彩菓子鉢・飾皿, a yosai confectionery bowl or display dish by Tokuda Yasokichi III. Its subject is colour itself: a gradual change that becomes more absorbing the longer we look.

The overall circle is clear and calm, yet its surface feels active. Narrow dark streaks reach inward from the rim, sometimes gathering closely and sometimes leaving a broader bright interval. Their different lengths stop the arrangement from becoming a rigid wheel. The eye can travel around the edge or follow a single line into the darker field.

A luminous band and a deep centre

The most striking passage is the meeting of the pale outer band and the saturated blue within it. There is no hard border to hold the two apart. Instead, small shifts of tone give the colour a sense of depth. The dark centre seems to recede while the brighter ring comes forward, even before the bowl’s physical curve is considered.

That is part of the work’s particular beauty: a restrained range of colours produces a rich spatial effect. The darkest marks do not simply outline a pattern. They interrupt, lengthen and concentrate the blue, making some passages appear denser than others. Look near the rim and then back towards the centre; the same blue family can feel cool and airy in one place, almost solid in another.

The shallow curve matters

In the oblique photograph, the round bowl becomes an ellipse and its shallow depth is easier to see. Colour wraps across that gentle change of plane. The rim is a narrow ending rather than a heavy frame, allowing the bright band to remain prominent. This view makes clear how closely the composition depends on the vessel’s shape.

The glossy surface also catches reflected light. A large curved white highlight in the photograph belongs to that reflection, rather than to a separate white motif. Noticing this lets us distinguish the stable blue composition from the light falling across it. The close view reveals a fine network of lines as well as the longer radial marks, offering a second, smaller scale of looking.

Yosai and the Kutani colour tradition

The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes Tokuda’s training in the Kutani glaze tradition and his later development of controlled colour suffusion. Its collection record uses the term yōsai for vivid coloured glazes. The Smithsonian likewise discusses his movement towards abstract imagery in colour. These accounts provide background to his artistic concerns; the museum objects are separate works, with their own dates and material records.

Here, the pleasure is immediate and visual. A simple circular format holds gradual colour, sharp streaks and a dark centre in balance. Our glass colour studies offer another way to pursue this interest: compare how a bright passage suggests depth on a ceramic surface with the changing colour of a glass vessel.

Look again: choose one dark streak near the edge. Follow it inward, then return through the blue beside it. Where does the colour appear to change most slowly?

A work we have handled, shown for reference.