4 Inch Diameter x 2 Inch Deep Biko Hexagon Bonsai Pot #531 – Vintage Medallion, Yellow, Chop & Nail Signed

Six medallions. That is the headline here. A single crane medallion is common on Horie Biko's work, and two or three already puts a pot in a different tier entirely, because the more medallions he worked into a piece the more important he is understood to have considered it. Collector pricing follows that count. Six is well past the point where this reads as a typical Biko.

The form is a hexagon, angular and formal rather than one of his rounds, and the glaze is the sunshine yellow he was known for committing to, a solid confident field rather than an accent. Each medallion is a raised origami crane, carved and applied to the body rather than pressed in. It carries both a chop and a nail signature, the signature scratched into the clay by hand while it was still leather-hard.

At 4 inches across and 2 inches deep this is shohin and accent scale. Shallow, so it wants a tree whose roots are already developed, and a hexagon reads formal, which means it works best with a tree confident enough to hold its own against six cranes and a yellow glaze. This is the pot on the shelf that gets picked up.