Kakurezaki Ryuichi is a well recognised member of the younger generation of artists working in the Bizen stoneware tradition. Bizen has been an important stoneware producing centre since the medieval period and was responsible for the production of some very remarkable tea ceremony wares during the Momoyama period (1573-1615). The Momoyama tea ceramic revival, which has affected the world of modern Japanese ceramics since the interwar years, has been particularly influential in Bizen, with the result that there have been and continue to be scores of potters creating ceramics that are often little more than imitations of late sixteenth and early seventeenth century prototypes. The V&A owns a work of this kind made circa 1950 by the late Living National Treasure Yamamoto Toshu (museum no. FE.56-1993).