Sako Ryūhei is known for his refreshingly contemporary metal vessels made with the 400-year-old mokume-gane, ‘wood-grain metal’, technique.

The mokume-gane technique was developed in Japan in the 17th century to decorate surfaces of sword fittings. Dozens of differently coloured thin metal sheets are joined together and, through the process of repeated chiselling and hammering, the characteristic wood grain pattern is achieved.

Sako was born in Tamano City, Okayama prefecture. He graduated from the Faculty of Arts, Department of Design and Applied Arts, of Hiroshima City University in 1999. He first encountered the art of mokumegane at the age of 20, when work by Norio Tamagawa (b.1942), Living National Treasure for the technique, exhibited at the Japan Traditional Craft Exhibition caught his eye. He was astonished to learn that hard metal could create such fluid patterns. Although his initial motivation in specialising in metalwork was because he thought it would be useful for remodelling motorbikes, mokumegane turned into his life passion. He went on to complete a Doctoral Degree Programme at Hiroshima City University. It took a further 10 years of self-study until he felt he had mastered his art.

This tall vessel is Sako’s masterpiece which truly demonstrates his extraordinary skills to create ‘a unique landscape’ by layering colours, engraving and forging. He has used dozens of layers of silver, copper, shakudo and shibuichi in this piece. Due to the extremely time consuming and labour-intensive process of achieving a successful lamination, his large vessels are rare.