"Laughing mouth" vase with streaming water decoration
Yanagihara Mutsuo (1934–)
1986
Glazed stoneware
Height 51.5 cm, width 46.8×26.8 cm
Private collection
Photograph by MUGYUDA Hyogo
The mouth has a full, sensual lip that droops at the front as if the vase is laughing. The vase stands on a foot that retains the form which the artist calls the “shoe shape”: the front section projects toward the viewer like the form of a shoe. The center of the foot is raised as if acting in unison with the mouth, embodying the sensuality that is often described by art critics. The pattern of streaming water in vividly contrasting colors of blue and yellow, accompanied by a gradation of dark blue reminiscent of the bottom of the sea emphasizes the sense of depth and the three-dimensional feeling of this intricate sculptural form.