KJ and I hope that each of you had a Merry Christmas! We want to personally thank all of the readers from Czech Republic for visiting our site last year and hope we will provide articles of interest for you in 2011. To all of our readers, we want to say thank you and our best wishes for 2011.
Last week we finally added new display cases to the house which has given us an opportunity to dig out a few pots we haven’t seen in a while and post them in this second article on small pots. In today’s post, we will show you pots by Tofukuji, Sugiura Keisen, Daisuke Sano, Bunzan and others where hopefully you might know the potter.

Tofukuji glazed pot (6cm)
Tofukuji made numerous very small pots some as small as 2.5cm or 1 inch. Tofukuji is known for his glazes and unfortunately today also he is known for the number of forgeries of his pots. In 2008 there were so many forgeries of his pots that it caused a devaluation of them in Japan. Our suggestion is that if you are going to purchase one that you do two things: 1) Purchase his book and study it so you can recognize his glazes and clay; and, 2) Buy from reputable dealers.

Tofukuji (6cm)

Tofukuji (6cm) - inkan (印鑑) or hanko (判子)

Unknown potter (6cm)
We are not sure who the artist is but we would consider this glaze to almost be classified as the color of sea foam. We would have loved to have seen what was planted in this pot. It was likely an accent plant but who knows.

Marufuji Seiji (丸藤) (7 cm)
We picked up this pot at the Green Club in 2008. Frankly it wasn’t an expensive pot but we loved the color and texture of it. \
Thanks to Josef we now know who made this pot: Marufuji Seiji (丸藤). Thanks Josef!

Marufuji Seiji (丸藤)

Unglazed Tokufuji
This pot has been in a previous post so we won’t say much other than this pot has never been used. An excellent shape and color.

Daisuke Sano (7 cm)
We really appreciate Daisuke’s pots. Most are glazed and hand drawn with beautiful patterns and colors.

Daisuke's signature
This is a more uncommon signature for Daisuke but I confirmed this is his pot in one of our Japanese bonsai pot books. As can be seen from the bottom of this pot, it has been used extensively.

Sugiura Keisen (7.5 cm)
We have several of Sugiura Keisen’s pots and enjoy his glazes. Several of his pots are in books we own and are in this same red glaze.

Sugiura Keisen

Kunii Masako (4cm)
Kunii Masako’s pot are available for sale at this site: click here. She makes principally very small pots and almost all of them glazed. If you are in need of good accent pots these are an excellent choice and her prices are quite good. You can purchase her pots through Yoshi.

Antique Chinese (12cm)
We have several antique Chinese pots in our collection. Most of them stay in the house until it is show time.

Bunzan (文山)
This is a Bunzan pot ~3cm on a Chinese stand. Frankly these aren’t all that practical to use as accent pots but we love his glazes.

Bunzan (4 cm)

Bunzan (1.5cm)
One of our smallest pots, we do have a Bunzan that is .5cm, and again using a nice glaze.

Bunzan
These are unusual as they are unglazed and very small. Both are under 2.5cm.

Bunzan
It might be interesting to see if we could plant a small orchid in this pot. We will let you know if it works or not.

Small glazed pots (1-2.5cm)
We purchased the three of these about four years ago from Youkei Bonsai. I have no idea who the potter is but we liked the scenes painted on these pots.
Tetsuzan (6cm)
This was sold to us as an antique Chinese pot but frankly I’m not sure how old it is and if it is Japanese or Chinese. Can anyone help by viewing the chop mark bel0w?

Tetsuzan
We used this as an accent pot but then decided it would be much better to be in the house. No need to take unnecessary risks.
Well this is a few of our small pots. Unpractical to use in most cases but certainly beautiful to look at and to hold. Our next post will be on small dobans and suibans. Till next time – Cheers!