Kamiya Ryuen was born September 18, 1929 in Tokyo, the son of a temple carpenter and sculptor.  He began creating pots for bonsai in the mid 1970s.  Nearly all Ryuen pots are carved from a single block of clay.  This process of hand carving a pot is infinitely more time consuming than wheel, slab, or mold production, but results in a much higher quality pot that is more resistant to breakage.

Small details like carving to the bottom of the pot, banded junctions, and unique shapes make Ryuen pots stand above other unglazed potters of his generation.  Note the lack of join unions around the feet in the following pics, a sign of being sculpted from single blocks of clay.

Thanks to Matt Ouwinga for taking the time to snap these photos for me.

Ryuen with cloud feet

Smaller Ryuen With Cloud Feet

Ryuen Round with cloud feet and incised lip

Rectangle Ryuen with lightly sloping sides

Thanks for having a look at a few pots by Kamiya Ryuen, Ill be doing a couple more posts on Ryuen when I get time to take and sort through some pictures.