1857-1935
male
niroku pottery
Born in Muramatsu Village, Uma County (now Shikokuchuo City). His real name is Rokutaro. Born into a family involved in tile manufacturing for generations.
He took over the family’s tile manufacturing business.
In 1883, while in Tokushima, he was impressed by the live dolls of Matsumoto Kisaburo, one of Japan’s foremost Kumamoto doll makers, and became passionate about doll making.
He visited potteries in various parts of Japan for further research, and in 1887, he came up with the idea of carving the opposite side of Soma ware of Fukushima Prefecture, focusing on the raised carvings. He studied carving landscapes, flowers and birds, and figures, and deep milky white glaze, and after much effort, he founded Niroku Pottery in his hometown Muramatsu Village.
His works, created using a superior technique of using several spatulas of various sizes instead of a potter’s wheel, won many prizes at domestic and international expositions, including the St. Louis World’s Fair and the Anglo-Japanese Exposition.
In 1928, Niroku’s masterpiece “Omoto” was designated as a gift from Ehime Prefecture for the Emperor Showa’s coronation ceremony.
[2nd generation Sasaki Niroku]
He seems to have inherited the first generation’s style faithfully, but the year’s of his birth and death, and a detailed history of his pottery are unknown.
[3rd generation Sasaki Niroku]
Born in Muramatsu-cho, Iyomishima City in 1914. His real name is Sasaki Denzo(佐々木傳造).
After graduating from the former Mishima Junior High School in 1932, he practiced the ‘Niroku-yaki’ pottery technique of the family business originating from the 1st and 2nd generations of Niroku, and succeeded to the name of 3rd generation Niroku in 1940.
Since then, he has recreated people and Buddhist statues, and also animals and plants such as the Japanese Rhodea(Omoto), Tenjin crab, and mice etc., as if they were alive. He has inherited the traditional Niroku-yaki, and in addition to creating forms that produce a realistic feeling as though they are truly alive, he has put effort into researching glazing, and endeavored to further improve coloring.
In 1959, he presented ‘Japanese Rhodea’ to celebrate the marriage of His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince, was designated as an intangible cultural property of Iyomishima City in 1962, and in 1994 he received the Minister of Labor Award for ‘Modern Master Craftsman’.
[4th generation Sasaki Niroku]
Born as a child of the 3rd generation Niroku, he inherited the Niroku-yaki business and is the present head of the family.
He inherits the traditional technique of making figurines, kyusu(small teapots), and containers decorated with animals and plants such as the Tenjin crab, Japanese rhodea, and people, by only carving with a spatula and not using a potter’s wheel.
