Seifu Yohei comes from a long line of Kyoto area potters and painters. He was the 4th generation of the Yohei pottery line, currently in the 5th, and lived from 1921 to 1991. The first generation lived from 1803-1863, just to give you an idea of how far back the family line of pottery goes.
While he made many pots of his own in his later years, he is perhaps best known for his collaboration pieces with Tsukinowa Yusen, and we’ll take a look at some of both. His style is very different from his friend Yusen. It’s very busy, often filling negative space areas with kanji poetry and designs. Sort of the anti-Isseki. Enjoy a look through a few pots from this unique and extraordinary painter.
Collaboration Pieces

So we’ll start off with one here in the States! This is a Yusen-Yohei collaboration pot in the collection of Matt Ouwinga, of Kaede Bonsai En. The animal clinging to the side is A Yusen signature move, using animals and children, and was used later in pots made and painted by Seifu Yohei. The arabesques on the tiger clinging to the pot are especially nice and well done.

A Yusen-Yohei collaboration piece. The pot is clearly Yusen’s signature style, but the painting is very much Yohei. Note the broad, indelicate brushwork and lack of significant negative space, Yohei’s signature style. It creates landscapes and images that are nearly impressionistic in their take on scenes.

Another Yusen-Yohei collaboration. This one has significantly more negative space than many other Yohei paintings. The painting itself is charming.

Another Yusen-Yohei collaboration piece. This one has not only Seifu’s signature style, but also typical Kyoto style geometric work, very unusual for Seifu paintings. The shape of the pot by Yusen is delicate and contrasts well with Seifu’s indelicate style.

Another Yusen-Yohei collaboration. Ive seen several version of this painting by Yohei, some with the red hat(boy that stands out!) some without.

An interesting multicolor tall cascade collaboration piece from Yusen And Yohei. The colors are vibrant and striking.

Seifu Solo

A pair of pots made and painted by Yohei. Note the Yusen style animal clinging to the side, a design much duplicated by Seifu in his own work.

So the first two pots featuring Yusen style animals clinging to the side of the pots were interesting, but this one is beyond the pale! Paintings cover both the inside and outside of the pot.

A pair of Akae painted Seifu Yohei. The characteristic busyness to Seifu’s painting is clearly here, with little to no negative space in either pot.

A multicolor, tall cascade pot in Seifu’s signature style. Zero white space in this pot! What would YOU plant in this?

A pair of multi-color painted pots, in Seifu’s signature style. His paintings are a little cartoonish, but charming for it, rather than cheesy.

Another tall cascade, this one painted in red with bold black kanji in the center of the landscape.

A blue Seifu Yohei, showing his characteristic landscape style and full coverage of the surface of the pot.

A very thickly glazed porcelain round by Yohei. The thick glaze is uncommon to porcelain works which are often delicate. Unsurprising considering Seifu’s style!

A lightly glazed angular cascade with band and interestingly cut feet. Very masculine, though the slight touches of glaze soften it a bit.

And we’ll finish up with a thickly glazed celadon porcelain pot, of a style most commonly seen in old Owari Yaki pots. Very simple and elegant, and very much out of character for Seifu Yohei!

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing a few pots from Yusen Collaborator(and excellent potter in his own right) Seifu Yohei. Thanks for reading! Up next: A few bonsai around my garden, and I’ll finally get to the third of the Big 3: Heian Kozan, the Razor.