PINE BARK & RAIN

Illustrated is a rather well fired Shigaraki chawan by Minagawa Takashi, son of Kiyotaka and pupil of Komori Shoan. The bowl is broad and the lift makes it appear a bit like it is floating just off the surface which adds a nice touch to the visual. The bowl was thrown and then a Matsukawa-hada style texture was impressed or beaten into the surface giving the bowl a lot of visual and actual texture that has an immediacy to it. This bowl wants to be held, fondled even to fill in any and all blanks you may have from the encounter which is typical of much of Minagawa Takashi’s work. As you can see, much of the bowls exterior has a perpetually wet sheen baked into the all-natural ash surface which in my book is a plus, the interior shows a dazzling pool of ash and lends itself quite enthusiastically to use. The lip may look a bit blunt, it is perfectly formed for use with tea or any other liquid you can impress into service and the foot makes for a simple, effective and ideal pedestal made for stability and another enjoyable feature while resting in the hand.     

This chawan was photographed a short while back while it seemed like there would never be any sunlight again. I took a number of the “Hollywood back drop” style photos of which this is one of them. It occurs to me that without some context, the background may be a bit iffy to figure out and so a degree of explanation is in order. During a torrential downpour during last spring, I opened the side window and decided to shoot the rain using the fastest shutter speed possible on my primitive and outdated camera and of the photos, this particular shot intrigued me the most and I decided to use it as a backdrop moving forward. It may seem a bit odd but I have noticed that it tends to make pots, chawan mostly look a bit like they are quite three dimensional so, not such a random photo after all, I hope you agree. 

A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS

This is another pot from a while back, a double lidded Oribe style slipware jar which makes lid throwing just a bit more complicated. Thrown out of stoneware, applied black and then white slip before combing the decoration. There isn’t anything too complicated here; simple covered jar, two lids but it is the combination of a few of my favorite things that makes it all the more interesting, Oribe and slipware. Over quite a few years of making pots, the bulk of my English slipware inspired pottery has been based on terra cotta clay but moving up in temperature to involve any number of my Oribe glazes together with another traditionally based style of work like combed or trailed slipware has been a real enjoyable adventure and honestly has probably prolonged my level of patience before I normally just go, well, enough of that!           

For what it’s worth, here is one of my favorite quotes as it applies here; “Enjoy the small things in life because one day you’ll look back and realize they were the big things.”  Kurt Vonnegut

HARMONY

I know I use the term classic rather frequently but I think it certainly applies to this Kawai-mon covered box by Kawai Takeichi. Building off the Mingei movement, this molded covered box form has been thoughtfully designed for use with the top of the piece projecting out over the walls making it easy to use and pick up, a bit like a hidden, ergonomic handle. Made of a porous stoneware clay, the pot is covered in a white glaze that has a slightly pearl effect across the surface and is classically decorated using iron, cobalt and copper to articulate the top of the box and center of each side panel with just the right amount of design. This flower design was commonly used by Takeichi on plates, bowls, vases and boxes where less is more and strikes the perfect balance between the (Kyoto) aesthetic and utilitarian form. Though the Kawai school steps just outside the stricter guidance of the Mingei movement, it is clear that like his mentor, Kawai Takeichi took the maxim, “beauty born of use” quite literally in his need to secure function, form and decoration acting in harmony. 

THE PROCESS IS CONTINUOUS

 

Though slightly on the small size, every chance encounter with the Hishoku Nanban-yaki pottery of Sakauchi Ensen is an enjoyable encounter. This vase is based on a classic, old school wooden kinuta, mallet and the proportions of neck to base work well and are well suited for any impressed use from fan holder to traditional flower vase. Among Sakauchi’s fancifully painted landscapes, this particular piece, well the firing stands out as a bit more unusual as there is a significant array of rich, deep iron red on one side, with rivulets of color running down the base of the piece as well as around 60% of the flattish lip area at the very top, the remainder flanked in green. Though I don’t necessarily consider this effect rare, it is surely serendipity when it occurs. These variations add a visual punch to an already intriguing and unusual landscape painted from carefully chosen clay, varying woods and what must have been a less than simple firing schedule. If possible, I would love to hear the explanation of each milestone toward this surface and exactly how he got there, one firing heaped on top of another, as 3rd Force maintains, “the process is continuous”.

BASIC

I was trying to figure out the best way to describe this bowl and the word basic came to mind and though I don’t think of the term basic with any negative connotation, I realize some may. What I mean is that this bowl is pretty much built for use with some nods to aesthetics thrown in for good measure from the banding, stamping and the rich, green Oribe surface. I think that despite the stamping and banding, this is a simple bowl in form and execution finding its inspiration from the fundamentals I learned a long time ago now. In point of fact, this simple teabowl was intended as a companion for an Oribe waterjar, finished in similar stamping, banding and glaze and together I think they both are cut for simplicity with just enough bells and whistles to get by and let’s not forget that rich, deep green.

 

THE PAST

Illustrated is a low flat Hachi style Iga mizusashi flanked by and reflecting the moon in the background. Made by Konishi Heinai II and prominently marked with the Taiko-gama seal, this was potted a bit on the heavy side, slightly deformed while wet and had a series of rough gouged decoration articulated around the form. The interior of this mizusashi holds an intriguing surprise, there is a pearlescent glaze with drifting strokes of gold representing grasses which much look like some old Rimpa design when filled with water. Added to this one surprise, there is another detail that I find quite appealing, the base, the bottom of the pot has an impressed wood pattern design, likely from where the wet pot was placed becoming part of the overall antique sensibility tying the mizusashi to feudal pots of a different time. 

Konishi Heinai II who specialized in Raku and Iga pottery had quite the skill for filling his clay works with a sense of timeless where they appear far older than they are. Was he a potter born out of time or a potter determined to forward an aesthetic that time cannot and should not abandon at a time when modernity and art stylings seem to prevail? I am perpetually thankful that there are potters who see the past as an adventure to explore everyday moving forward.

FRAGRANCE

Keeping on the koro theme to end the week, here is a simple and very Chinese influenced Jun style koro by Kimura Morinobu. The form is classic, resting on a tripod configuration and puffing out to express the fullest volume possible in a pot you can hold in the palm of your hand. My suspicion is that the glaze was engineered out of some wood ash or another and visually, the koro has three distinct bands of coloration; the pale blue seiji at the base, the wildly textured purple at the top of the form completed by a rich, dark wood pierced and carved lid with a dramatic carnelian knob.      

What one can take away from Morinobu’s koro is the sense of purpose, where function is paramount and the intent visually is rooted in the allusion of fragrance where a small amount of clay, ash and fire build a bridge between the physical and emotional realms. I many respects, I would expect nothing less from Kimura Morinobu where potter and pottery look to Kyoto aesthetics, then skillfully infused this vocabulary into much of his work.

A butterfly poised
On a tender orchid,
How sweetly the incense
Burns on its wings      Matsuo Bashō

SPLASH AND DASH

In the sun sometimes makes a big difference in seeing the details of my Ao+ glazed pieces. In this case, a small khaotique slipped cap jar decorated in a splash and dash style though there is some rhyme and reason to it which may seem hard to believe. The black slip was applied rather quickly in a very spontaneous manner that I have repeated on pots for quite a long while, what is rather interesting is that at some points, where there is black slip under the gosu style surface, there is a neat, droozy quality that adds a bit of subtlety to the overall surface. From this firing way back in 2025, there were several of these smaller cap jars made to fit neatly between some vases that were ordered which made for a nice, full kiln. I need to remember to wait for the sun to come out, a rare occurrence these days to photograph this particular glaze surface as it brings out the effects and truer nature of the pieces than relying on a 200watt tungsten bulb, once again all natural is the best way to go!

HAGI NERIAGE

If memory serves me, the very first piece of Hagi neriage pottery I ever encountered was a faceted vase form by Yamato Yasuo. The vase was a variety of earthy tones covered in a semi-transparent ash glaze which created an insight into the geology of the throwing. This neriage koro was made by Yamato Tsutomu, son of Yasuo and as one would expect, it shows many of the same characteristics and overall sensibility. The neriage that surrounds this koro has an array of earthy tones and pattern like the side of a hill, cleaved open and covered in a wisp of mist circling the form adding a dimension to the pot that keeps the eye engaged before moving on and upward to the lid. Thrown and patterned in a similar fashion, the lid has a grouping of triangular piercing dedicated to the function of the pot, it is simple and direct and completes the package in part by echoing the pattern at the bottom of the three footed base. Though clearing maneuvering within his father’s footsteps, Yamato Tsutomu works within a tradition begun by the father and now passed on to son and future generations.

WHAT A PAIR III

Illustrated is a pair of Shigaraki, haikaburi chawan by Kohyama Yasuhisa framed with sunlight and shadow. While I have posted these separately previously, I had actually forgotten that this pair were like passing ships in the night, one mine and the other going to a far-off collector. At any rate, I felt these qualified for the “what a pair” commentary as there are many similarities and differences between them as if no two snowflakes are alike, the same can be said for some potters; their pots and how they work, especially where wood firing is involved. On the left, the form is both lower and wider with an array of distinct effects while the taller, more compact bowl on the right has that wangata sensibility dominated on the face by a deep, dark crust of ash built up due to the intensity of wood and flame. Forgotten photo, now surfaced and posted, showing not one but two chawan by a potter of favored status and everyone knows, the only thing better than one is of course, two.