The vase bulges like a ball and narrows sharply toward the mouth. There is no neck and the rim turns slightly outward. This piece was produced in 1952 by Yagi Kazuo (1918-1979), a leading artist in Sodeisha (The Earthworm's "Footprints" Group) founded in 1948. Apart from a group of objects "liberated" from practicality and functionalism, and collectively called "object ware," Yagi produced another group of objects following the tradition of Oriental pottery which is bound by the natural constraints of earth and clay. This vase is a good example of the latter.