MEDSAN - Kintsugi Howl's Moving Castle (金継ぎのハウルの動く城) - UNIQUE WORK

ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD - EDITION 1/1

With this square-format work, Medsan places the living castle of Howl’s Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki, a Masterpiece from Studio Ghibli released in 2004, at the heart of a blue-and-white porcelain that is broken and then repaired with gold. The great metal carcass of sheets, domes, chimneys and clawed feet moves at the center of the plate, while Calcifer, the fire demon, burns in the open hearth of the oven. The entire decor — swirling clouds, mountains, stylized flowers — obeys the vocabulary of cobalt blue, between Japanese Arita and Delft.

The treatment borrows from a cobalt underglaze: graded washes for the reliefs, tight hatching for the castle’s volumes, a dry and nervous line for the machinery. The entire surface is covered with a network of fine crazing, darkened by time, through which wide veins of gold kintsugi traverse, thick, frank, almost sculptural. Only Calcifer escapes the blue: his orange flame and large round eyes form the sole warm accent, placed exactly at the center of gravity of the composition. The contrast between the glazed enamel’s icy surface and this small living ember drives the whole work.

Kintsugi does not hide the break, it celebrates it: the object broken becomes more precious than before, marked by its history. The parallel with Howl’s Castle is strikingly apt, since that structure is itself a patchwork of disparate pieces, a mended body that stands upright by the will of a fire. The gold fissures become the very joints of the machine, and Calcifer the heart that refuses to go out. Repair, movement and memory are contained here in a single image.

A contemplative and graphic piece, ideal for bringing a touch of Japanese craft and animated poetry to a minimalist, Japanese-inspired interior or a collector’s space devoted to mashups between ceramic tradition and Ghibli culture.

Technical specifications:
Artist: Medsan
Reference: Ghibli / Howl’s Moving Castle / Calcifer / Kintsugi / Blue-and-white Porcelain / Miyazaki
Dimensions: 40 x 40 cm
Edition: Unique work — 1/1 (worldwide unique exemplar)
Year: 2026
Support: Giclée mounted on a wooden frame (thickness approx. 2 cm)
Signature: Yes, hand-signed
Condition: Excellent condition
Certificate: Certificate of authenticity (upon request)

About the Studio:
Atelier Joconde is a collective of artists united around a living and plural contemporary creation. Set up as a true hub of artistic production, the studio operates both in collaborative creation and in individual approaches, depending on projects and works. Atelier Joconde is also a family venture. Le Yack, a contemporary figurative painter, develops a narrative and introspective body of work with cinematic and realistic influences. By his side, Medsan, oriented toward pop art painting, explores color, modern iconography and visual culture. Finally, Neo Pablo engages in a more instinctive search, mixing abstract art, brut art, and figurative abstraction. Each work is conceived, realized and followed within the studio, with a shared artistic standard and an identity of its own for each artist.

Keywords:
Medsan, Atelier Joconde, Le Yack, Howl’s Moving Castle, Calcifer, Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki, Kintsugi, Blue-and-white Porcelain, Square Format, Contemporary, Unique Work, 1/1