Hiroshi Taruta Seto Porcelain Bud Vase “Tsubomi”

Porcelain bud vase · Carved · Hiroshi Taruta · Seto

A white porcelain bud vase with flowing carved curves

Tsubomi, meaning "bud," is a bud vase by Hiroshi Taruta, a young artist working in Seto. Its glossy white porcelain surface is carved with smooth, curving lines that catch the light and soften the silhouette of the form.

It holds its own as an object on a shelf, but it is at its best with a flower or a few grasses of the season. In Japan, the ichirin-zashi — a vase made for a single stem — is a quiet way of bringing the season indoors, where one flower is given room to be seen on its own. Compact in size, Tsubomi suits an entryway, a kitchen counter, a dining table, or the corner of a desk.

Hiroshi Taruta, a porcelain artist working in Seto

Hiroshi Taruta works from his studio in Seto, Aichi Prefecture — a city long celebrated for its pottery tradition, Seto ware (Seto-yaki). His choice to pursue linear Hotarude came from a desire to do what others do not. A turning point came in 2015, when he spent ten months in Europe. There, the same pieces that people in Japan had sometimes described as having a European quality were received as distinctly Japanese. Seeing his work labeled differently depending on who was looking and where, he began to ask what would make it unmistakably his own, and he found his answer in taking Hotarude as far as it could go.

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Hiroshi Taruta

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