20. Kusube Sennosuke 

KUSUBE (Kusube Pottery Trading Factory)
楠部

Kusube Sennosuke (1859-1940) 楠部 千之助

Kusube Sennosuke, whose real name was Taniguchi, was born in 1859. Initially he wanted to be a painter and studied under Kono Bairei, a master of kacho-e painting, and renowned for his paintings of birds. He was ïn 1881 "adopted" by Kusube Kameyoshi whose family had for generations manufactured ritual objects for use in Ise Jingu, the shinto shrine that the Japanese adore as "Soul of Japan," located in Ise city, Mie Prefecture. On that occasion, he took Kusube's last name. Out of respect for his new surname Kusube and possibly also for economic reasons , Satsuma style pottery was a booming business at that time, he abandoned his painting career and established the Kusube Pottery Trading Factory to promote the local Awata ware industry. He had great success with this business, and as this success grew, so did the number of artisans working under the Kusube company name. Although the Kusube workshop ( meant is the Kusube Pottery Trading Factory ) certainly also produced high-level works, which were probably produced by Sennosuke himself, it also produced many medium and even low-level works. The company closed in 1940, shortly before Sennosuke's death in the same year.

Note:

Kusube is one of the most common names on Satsuma pottery. The quality varies from moderate to fairly good, and only an occasional high quality. Kusube is sometimes mistakenly called Nambe, probably because of the similarity between 南部 (Nambe) and 楠部 (Kusube), and the sometimes very sloppy markings, painted by decorators who were not necessarily literate.  Another common mistake is confusing Kusube Sennosuke (1859-1940) with his son, the famous Kusube Yaichi (1897-1984). Serious auction houses and antique dealers obviously know the difference, but on auction sites like e-bay and also at the somewhat smaller auction houses, Satsuma-style works by Kusube Sennosuke are often offered as Kusube Yaichi. Considering the year of birth of Yaichi (1897), it is clear that all of Kusube's work made in Meiji and early Taisho period can be attributed to the workshop of his father Kusube Sennosuke. Besides that,  Kusube Yaichi was a modern ceramicist; his work is of a very different nature from that of his father, and also of a much later date. It is unlikely that Yaichi Kusube worked (intensively) in his father's company. From a young age, he concentrated on modern pottery and was successful at it. Possibly Yaichi helped his father (who was in his seventies at the beginning of Showa period) with the development of the more modern Kusube work from the late Taisho and Showa period. This modern style, characterized by stylized, brightly colored figures using moriage on a mostly white glazed background, is clearly recognizable in comparison to the more common way of decoration in traditional colors, where the background was glazed dark brown or cobalt blue.  So although it is possible that Yaichi Kusube was responsible for the more modern designs of the Kusube workshop,  even then they may not be called the work of Yaichi Kusube, as they are presented as Kusube only, being the Kusube Pottery Trading Factory.