{"product_id":"vintage-tsuboya-ware-vase-okinawan-fish-motif-ceramic-horn-handle-pottery","title":"Vintage Tsuboya Ware Vase, Okinawan Fish Motif Ceramic, Horn Handle Pottery","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThis is a large vintage Tsuboya ware (壺屋焼) vase from Okinawa, Japan's southernmost prefecture and former independent Ryukyu Kingdom, hand-carved with fish, banana-tree (bashō), and floral roundel motifs under an amber-brown glaze accented with blue-green at the rim.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eCultural \u0026amp; historical narrative\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTsuboya-yaki traces its origin to 1682, when the Ryukyu Kingdom government consolidated several existing kilns — Chibana, Takaraguchi, and Wakuta — into a single pottery district in Naha that still bears the name Tsuboya today. Because the Ryukyu Kingdom operated as an independent maritime trading hub linking Japan, China, and Southeast Asia, Tsuboya pottery absorbed a wider range of outside influence than most mainland Japanese ceramic traditions, developing its own distinct visual language. Tsuboya ware divides into two categories: arayachi, unglazed and used for large storage jars and the island's iconic shisa guardian-lion figures, and jouyachi, glazed ware decorated with elaborate incised motifs of fish, dragons, and local plant life — a style that rose to prominence from the Taishō period onward as Tsuboya potters competed with mainland Arita ware for market share. The carved fish here, rendered with a dotted scale texture rising in slight relief from the clay, sits within a decorative vocabulary most closely associated with Kinjō Jirō (金城次郎, 1912–2004), the Tsuboya potter whose fish carvings — once described by fellow potter Hamada Shōji as fish that seem to be smiling — became so influential that they were adopted throughout Tsuboya's workshops and remain the style's most recognizable signature. The banana tree, or bashō, is a plant deeply tied to Okinawan material culture through bashōfu, the traditional Ryukyuan cloth woven from banana fiber, making its appearance here a distinctly local motif rather than one borrowed from the mainland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eAttribution note\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe carved fish motif and glazed jouyachi style are strongly consistent with Tsuboya ware from Okinawa. An incised mark is present on the base but is not clearly legible enough to confirm a specific potter or workshop — while the fish-carving style is closely associated with Kinjō Jirō, whose influence spread widely through Tsuboya, this piece cannot be confirmed as his personal work and is described here as being in that tradition rather than attributed to him directly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eCare + closing\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWipe clean with a soft, damp cloth; hand wash only. A substantial, striking centerpiece for collectors drawn to Okinawan folk pottery and hand-carved fish motifs.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Chikoyaki","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46616950276175,"sku":"CKY-CER-1217","price":579.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0667\/6588\/1423\/files\/IMG_8045_result.jpg?v=1788510164","url":"https:\/\/chikoyaki.com\/products\/vintage-tsuboya-ware-vase-okinawan-fish-motif-ceramic-horn-handle-pottery","provider":"Chikoyaki","version":"1.0","type":"link"}