ITŌ SUIKO (1894-1980)
A porcelain flower vase
Showa era (1926-1989), mid-20th century
Of cylindrical form, the pure white clay incised and inlaid with a stylized floral motif within a double diamond-shaped border, signed on the base Suiko
With a wood tomobako storage box signed and inscribed Saiyū zōgan mon hanaike Suiko zō (Colored glaze inlaid flower vase made by Suiko) and sealed Suiko
9 7/8in (25.2cm) high
Footnotes:
For another cylindrical vase by this artist, dated to the 1930s, see Kendall H. Brown, Deco Japan: Shaping Art and Culture, 1920-1945, (exhibition catalogue), Alexandria, Virginia, Art Services International, 2012, cat. no.55.

A native of Kyoto, Itō Suiko first had his work accepted into the Teiten national exhibition 1929 and would continue to show at the Teiten and its successor iterations until 1957. In 1930 he founded a ceramics research and development group, the Sanjokai, in collaboration with the distinguished potters Itō Tōzan II and Miyanaga Tōzan and in the following year he started his own business in Kyoto's Gojōzaka district. Itō's quietly experimental spirit seems almost to anticipate some of the new departures that would shatter the mold of Kyoto ceramics in the post-war era.