VARIA

I have to admit, when I think of most Kawai-mon, Kawai school pots, I think of rather straightforward surfaces, they are beautiful but as for complexity and depth, that is somewhat rarer an encounter. To my surprise, I have a recent opportunity to acquire what I expected was a simple, large chawan by Kawai Hirotsugu directly out in the style of his master Kanjiro but upon arrival, I was more than pleasantly surprised. As you may surmise, within the iron temmoku glaze and splashes of red and green there is depth, complexities like looking into the varia of hataraki in hamon of a Japanese sword. The iron surface gives way to ashy ambers filled with small crystals, islands of tessha, blue to green streaks running from the splashed decoration and layers of boundaries around most of the additions to the base glaze. In no means trying to oversell this chawan but it is more of an anomaly than an everyday experience where I suspect the glazing and the heat had a fair degree more influence of the outcome than it normally does. Though I have handled at least two dozen pots by Kawai Hirotsugu, some have had hints of this complexity but this was the first encounter where the surface is composed of layers of complexity both bold and subtle with each effect as welcome as a long-lost friend.

INDIGO

As with most of my work, I like to see what forms and glazes work well together at times pushing what will and will not work. After making a number of teabowls a while back, I went through the usual suspects of temmoku/ medieval green, temmoku/ ash, amber, two types of Oribe and saffron/ iron yellow and had three pieces left over after a few firings. Since I hadn’t tried out this type of bowl with the soda blue and wanting to know who the form, decoration and glaze would all work together, I thought it was well past time and glazed them up, one faceted, sandy bowl and two combed slip pieces. The sandy bowl came out looking quite unappealing so it met with an unfortunate hammer accident and this is the remaining combed slip bowl.

This particular bowl, a bit ovalled and with undulating lip was entirely black slipped before applying and combing the white over and the base is entirely black except the foot ring which is the soda blue coloration over stoneware. As you can see, the texture and depth of the slip creates a neat effect altering the glaze color as it moves around the bowl and there is a really intriguing band of almost indigo blue at the base where the bowl and bottom join which makes for a nice accent. I have to admit, I am thinking that I prefer more straight forward thrown vessels for this soda blue glaze but may need to make a few more thrown and slightly altered pieces to get a fuller perspective, just one more thing on the list to get to sometime in the next year or so!

AN ISLAND

Illustrated is a rather well fired, even semi-crusty Iga mizusashi that draws much of its inspiration from various feudal predecessors while subscribing to rather traditional visual values. This mizusashi has a slightly wonky appearance where the upper most top of the pot is wide and undulating, supported by a sturdy base that completes the form. The surface has a mixture of ash effects from somewhat crusty, not fully melted additions to the surface to running ash, bidoro and fields of other colors and ash build up all natural acting as a written testament to a rather maniacal, even violent process. As a modern expression of the potter’s craft (or art?), the entirety of this mizusashi straddles that fence between the old and the new.           

Perhaps one peculiar facet of this mizusashi is that it was made by Kaneshige Motoo of one of the 20^th centuries most important Bizen dynasties, in fact, he is son number four of Kaneshige Toyo, Ningen Kokuho, a hold of the tradition of the region. Though working in and made in Bizen, Okayama prefecture, this mizusashi has the appearance of Iga-yaki, the traditional pottery of Mie Prefecture, a style chosen by Motoo perhaps in part to distance and distinguish himself and his work from that of his father and brothers, each of them widely recognized for their Bizen-yaki. Whatever prompted Kaneshige Motoo to embrace Iga-yaki is immaterial what is more consequential is that using Iga clay and firing methods have been enhanced by his nuanced use of those traditions forms and aesthetic idioms leading to a distinctly organic creation of Iga pottery. This mizusashi along with the countless others stands as a delightful addition, surrounded by a vast array of traditional wood fired pottery creating an island of Iga within an ocean of Bizen-yaki.

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main"  John Donne

M3 III

Illustrated is another entry partially created by AI of a rather classical Sansai  (sancai) style mizusashi by Kato Kiyokazu (Kato Seizan II). The first pot I ever saw by this potter was a similar squared mizusashi with a sansai surface articulated with incised potters’ marks and punctuated by added device around the form. Based or influenced on some Chinese archetype or another this pot has a profound sense of form and volume just waiting to be explored with the simple removal of the lid. The well-conceived balance between form, marks and the flowing rich surface all point to an object that would easily be at home in a museum case showing off movement toward a distinctly Japanese aesthetic while not quite abandoning its Chinese roots.     

The truth is that many modern Japanese traditions and movements rely on their Chinese or Korean origins and this Sansai mizusashi is no exception. Beyond the tri-colored pottery, Kato works with hakuji, temmoku and ransai where his meticulous throwing and craftsmanship can not escape scrutiny of the viewer and where near perfection is called for. I chose this “sansai hana-mizusashi” as a classical and highest quality object by Kato Kiyokazu to reside in my Museum mentis meae where the nobility, tradition, history and aesthetics all come together in a clear vision where the viewer may leave the object behind but the conversation is likely far from over.  

“I want to establish a form of aesthetic beauty that blends a soft gentle atmosphere with a sharp, focused sense of tension.”  Kato Kiyokazu

(*This picture contains an actual image of a pot or pots in an AI generated background or scenario)

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

It is kind of an odd idea to be making snowberry designs as it is beginning to look like spring has sprung, even in central New York. Illustrated is a larger bisque terra cotta pasta bowl complete with black and white slip and sgraffito design, the basis of snowberry(s). The form and design are pretty straight forward, even simple if the throwing of terra cotta isn’t easy to define that way. After all these years, I am usually okay with the results but there has never been a more textbook definition of love/ hate than my relationship with the red menace, terra cotta. I probably have Dick and Patty to thank for that!  

IDEAL

I’ll start out by saying this is neither my photo or my pot, rather this Okabe Mineo oribe chawan was exhibited in the traveling exhibition, JAPANESE CERAMICS TODAY (1983), ceramics from the Madame Kikuchi collection. I have handled over a half dozen chawan by Okabe Mineo and seen ten times that many in illustrations but this chawan has stood as my ideal of 20^th century Oribe all these years. The simplicity and directness of the form, the throwing marks and spatula work all articulate this chawan under its evocative green surface where time is suspended and the old and the new are to my eye, undistinguishable. I was fortunate to see this chawan in person and since that encounter there are times when I wish I had not as it is precisely this chawan and the LIVING NATIONAL TREASURES OF JAPAN exhibition that flipped a switch and set me on this inescapable path of modern Japanese ceramics. Sorry for these poor photos but I think everyone interested in Japanese pottery needs to see this at least once in a lifetime. 

 

I almost forgot to mention, I was completely sold at the kodai!

 

NUDGE

Brilliantly animated beaked pouring vessel by Minnesota potter, Jeff Oestreich. The pot is composed of rather simple pieces-parts to create a wonderfully conversant functional pot that is so much more than that. The elements of the pot work well with the wax resisted decoration and glaze all finalized as a result of a soda firing all the way back in the early 1990s. Having had the opportunity to study with and act as a studio assistant back at Haystack, watching Jeff work, his concentration, meticulous technique and ability to nudge the clay into unique and compelling forms was quite a treat with this pot being quite the little treasure. Having had and cared for this pot for almost three decades, on numerous occasions it was pressed into service and works like a champ where in its use, once washed again and set away to dry, the piece glistens in its momentary wetness adding yet another pleasurable feature to its arsenal of appeal. By sheer fortune, years after acquiring this pot, a mate came along, almost the same exact shape and size but with a differing decoration but that will have to wait for another day. In this case one is enough but where one is good, two is surely better.

SOME MOVEMENT (FROM THE PAST)

In trying to sort out a ton of files and videos, I happened across this video of an older mentori and stamped Oribe style teabowl that I made in 2023 (?). I thought this was a rather simple bowl; simple form, simple and direct faceting, periodic stamp placement and the bare minimum for my Oribe glaze, only two glazes instead of five. I think the video conveys some of the volume and some movement (from the past). 

SHIMMERING GEOMETRY

Illustrated is a well thrown yuri-hakkin-sai hanaire with very pleasant proportions and measuring just about a shaku in height. Made by Furukawa Toshio most likely in the late 1980s or early 1990, this glaze and the geometric patterning is typical of his work where he cut shapes from platinum foil and then using sgraffito he animated the surface. In this particular case, Furukawa relied on a much more geometric design, less organic than some of his pieces where thin columns of foil give way to large rectangular devices where the form reaches its fullest volume. The vase is further divided into six distinct segments into which the repeating patterns are applied and carried out creating distinct fields of shimmering geometry.       

Expanding on his seiji and seihakuji techniques, Furukawa Toshio created quite a few of this yuri-hakkin-sai style work, many of which ended up being featured in national exhibitions across Japan. Like with his celadon works, Furukawa used this glaze/ foil technique on a wide array of forms and sizes ranging from guinomi and koro all the way up to large tsubo and rather expansive hachi. This vase is just one of a myriad of pieces that harken back to the works of Ono hakuko, Kato Hajime and the older Chinese wares from which this technique sprung but it is a fitting addition to an idea and ideal that has become almost synonymous with Japanese potters of the Showa through Heisei eras and now beyond.          

On a personal note, given the chance, seeing Furukawa’s yuri-hakkin-sai work in the sunlight is in my opinion the very best way to look the view away in one’s memory.

ROTATION

I realize that I put up a post on this chawan quite some while back but this was up for rotation and I decided to have a bit of photographic fun with it before just letting it hit the shelf and start to collect dust. The previous post, entitled, HIER EN DAR revolved around how differently a pot looks between varying photos and light sources, one being taken in situ and the other coming from an exhibition catalogue. Though a new post, you can see that I did decide to stay on topic, referencing photography as I decided to pull out a number of Hollywood style backdrops for this bowl since the past couple of days have been quite dreary, downtown days*.      

Illustrated is another photo of a rather dramatic and bold Iga chawan by Kishimoto Kennin. Using a photo of a half-moon that I took a long while back, I created this image without the aid of any photo manipulation or AI, just old fashion 1950s technicolor technology. I choose this moon image because as with most wood fired chawan, the front and back usually have different landscapes, in this case, the from is juicy and wet and the back is drier ash and hi-iro but the textures of both images seemed to work well to my eye at least. Having the chawan in hand, I also find it quite interesting how it affects my mood more so as the sun goes down allowing the bowl to “dance by the light of the moon”, balancing skillfully, exuberance and a sense of impermanence. It may sound overly sentimental but I am struck by the solemnity and moodiness of this chawan; was it intentional, baked in or is it just me?

(* A B-52s reference and homage to Quiche Lorraine)