Untitled [Flower vase with three-colored glaze] c. early 1980s

Okuyama Zen'ichi made this vase using glaze, sometime after 1930, a kind of vessel covered in tiny marks. Imagine him in his studio, thinking about surface and color, glazing and firing. It's like a painting, right? But with clay and heat, instead of canvas and brush. I can almost feel the artist's hand moving, daubing each little red and black spot onto that green ground. It reminds me a bit of Gustav Klimt, but earthy, somehow more grounded. The glaze gives it a skin, a texture, something alive. You could fill it with flowers, or just let it sit there, being itself. Zen'ichi is part of a long line of artists playing with form and surface. They’re all talking to each other, even across centuries. It's like they're saying, "Hey, look at this, what do you think?" And we get to listen in, and maybe even join the conversation ourselves.