This powerfully sculpted, bucket-shaped vessel by Takauchi Shugo (born 1937) is an example of contemporary work inspired by Oribe wares, an important variety of ceramics produced at the Mino kilns near Nagoya in central Japan during the Momoyama period (1568-1615). Takauchi lives and works in Mashiko, the pottery centre in Tochigi Prefecture to the north-east of Tokyo made famous by Hamada Shoji. Takauchi's exploration of the Oribe aesthetic is a relatively rare instance of a contemporary artist from one region working in a style closely associated with another. The recent emergence of figures like Takauchi who ignore the barriers of regionalism is a reversion to the pattern found in the early days of Japanese studio ceramics in the first half of the twentieth century.