Yuteki tenmoku tea bowl by Yoshio Endo, ca 1980

This yuteki (oil spot) tenmoku glazed tea bowl is 4.7" in diameter x 2.2" high and is marked on the bottom with the mark of the artist, Yoshio Endo. The bowl (chawan) came with the original, signed tomobako (wooden box), ribbon (Kumihimo) and turmeric cloth (ukon-fu). The tomobako is high end as it is signed on the inside of the lid and has four rails which makes an air tight seal.

A brief biography of the artist is also included on a small piece of paper. This is the only information I found about what appears to have been the start of a promising career as a studio potter:

1944 Born
1974 Start working at Misiro kiln
1977 Start working at his own kiln (Independence)
1978 Prized at Traditional Handcraft New Work Exhibition
1979 Prized at Traditional Handcraft New Work Exhibition

Unfortunately, as far as I can determine this Yoshio Endo was abducted by aliens shortly after 1979. Yoshio Endo is also not an unusual name in Japan. I quickly found several other men with the same name. I have also posted a meoto yunomi pair by this potter in my collection which I have never gotten around to posting better images of:

https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/287166-yuteki-tenmoku-glaze-meoto-yunomi-set-by

Given the skill level of this artist by 1979, I would expect to at minimum find earlier works by him. I have found numerous examples of his work but nothing dated after 1980. He may have died around then. In time, more of his work may surface. Given the apparent difficulty of creating the glazes he used and the supposedly small circle of Japanese artists who use it, even forty years later, it seems logical to guess that he must have enjoyed some level of notoriety when he was active. I have found, however, that artists in all mediums are often quickly forgotten once they become inactive.

Yuteki Tenmoku is actually a Chinese glaze dating back hundreds of years and much admired by the Japanese but not reproduced by them until fairly recently. Only a very few Japanese artists attempt to recreate this glaze and have been exporting this technique back to China where it was lost:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenmoku
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chawan

I plan to try to contact Japanese artists who are currently reproducing this glaze to see if any of them know what happened to Yoshio Endo since such a small circle of artists use it.

I could not pass this bowl up due to the documentation it included and how well it complements my meoto yunomi.

Update:

This is the latest dated example of a bio sheet I found that came with a piece of this artist's pottery. I found several examples of it:

ceramic history
Endo Yoshio
799 Maesawa, Mashiko-machi, Haga-gun, Tochigi Prefecture TEL 02857 (4) 0818
1944 Born in Hanyu City, Saitama Prefecture
1974 Enter Mishiro Kiln
Independence in 1977
1978 Selected for the New Traditional Crafts Exhibition
1980 Selected for the New Traditional Crafts Exhibition

One of the very similar biographies also says "1973 Studied at Sanjo Kiln". Endo made other finishes besides tenmoku and I found several leaf themed pieces by him.