TENSION

My first encounter with the ceramics of Gerd Knapper occurred rather by chance in what I seem to remember as 1989. While at the home of Tuttle Books in Vermont, I happened across a Kodansha book entitled, GERD KNAPPER; Clay Works and was quite intrigued by the seamless synthesis of German discipline and a distinctly Japanese aesthetic somewhat dependent of the elemental spirit of the Japanese nobori-gama. This ash-glazed koro (incense burner) is the work of Gerd Knapper, a figure whose presence in the landscape of yakimono was as unexpected as it was profound and a unique case of where East truly meets West or vice versa.            

The very form and surface of this koro is defined by well-conceived undulating surface of curvilinear fluting that converges, narrowing, constricting toward the base and the rim, creating a dynamic sense of tension, compression and expansion both real and perceived. These carved grooves serve a dual purpose: they provide a structural, neo-Gothic (?) architecture for the eye to follow and act as channels for the wood ash to pool and break during the intensity of the firing.            

The glaze is an applied ash to add life to the pot without hiding away the carved details, while the piece was gently fired in some sheltered spot in the wood kiln which was likely immersed in long hours of a pine-fueled fire. The applied ash works well across the surface, creating highlights and an almost sesame seed style surface which adds some depth and movement to the already animated form. The contrast between the toasted, iron-rich clay body and the ash, finalized by the flames finally steps in to complete the work the potter initiated when there was nothing but a ball of clay at the wheel.

The lid is particularly noteworthy for its openwork (sukashi) design. The four-petaled floral motif is not merely decorative; it is a functional aperture through which the incense smoke would traditionally rise, trailing like mountain mist. The carving here is confident, mirroring the deep fluting of the body and ensuring the vessel maintains a cohesive visual weight from base to knob and as was intended, the lid works together with the carved form, as both compliment and the completed element. Though small, from its design to its creation, Gerd Knapper completed this in his mind’s eye before he even wedged the clay.

IN MOTION?

I have been going through old files and decided to put up this slideshow video of a Shigaraki tsubo by Ogawa Seiho. This, in motion, well, sort of in motion shows off some details of this traditional Shigaraki tsubo and fills in some of the blanks that are certainly missed on a single static image. Hope this helps a bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jiKwiXto_U

TRI-COLOR

In no small measure, I have long admired the general concept and visual of sancai/sansai glazed pottery and every now and again, I run tests and try my own, simple take on the technique. This Kushime Sansai Cap Jar is a study of the archetype where; form and the rhythmic movement of the slip help animate the overall piece. While the CD player helps in the motivation with Kitaro in the background of the studio, once thrown and tooled, the surface begins to show signs of awakening with the kushime, a direct and often used vocabulary. I would like to think these ridges are more than just decorative; they are part of the structure aiding in redirecting the glaze as it matures in the heat of the kiln creating this runny surface.         

If the porcelain clay is the canvas, this attempt at sansai (three-color) is reimagined, simplistically using prior glazes and oxide washes where the combination of amber, copper and droozy, washed out brown run diagonally following the predetermined furrows of the slip. At peak temperature, the base glaze thins over the high ridges of the combed texture, revealing the pale body beneath, while the washes play their part and pooling into cooperative streams within the valleys. The texture is a marriage of sharp definition and fluid softness; a topography of the seen and the felt which has become smooth from the assistance of the firing. As for the simple form, the cap, or lid, continues the movement drawing the eye upward to a central point, which is calm and still in contrast to the motion of the slipped areas.         

I would like to think (?) there is some degree of organized spontaneity in this work, though I know just what I will do. Working with slip gives you one chance and either you get it right or you don’t, maybe after 10,000 more pieces, I will get the slipwork and the glazing to work in a more “harmonious outcome*” but until then, this is just the way it is.   

(* reference to the movie, CROSSFIRE TRAIL 2001)

VOID

This enyu guinomi made by Karatsu potter Matsuno Jun represent a profound dialogue between the intentional hand and the elemental serendipity during any kiln firing. Crafted by a pupil of Iwabuchi Shigeya, Matsuno has distilled the lessons of the Kyoto school into a refined and simple, contemporary language that honors the spirit of his master while pushing into the realm of experimental territory of the modern enyu (salt-glaze) movement.               

The form of this particular guinomi is architectural yet intimate; it features a bold structure, where the clay has been shaped in decisive yet simple geometric strokes. This physical movement built into the pot does not merely create a shape; it creates a landscape for the hand and eye to navigate. The rim, slightly undulating and rhythmic, offers a tactile invitation that engages a user to accommodate themselves to its use. As for the kodai, the foot, its modelling is both creative and well-conceived for stability and the tactile encounter suggesting the diminutive vessel sprung from the earth rather than having been sculpted to its conclusion.                  

Examining the surface, the piece is a is a balance of simplicity and elegance where the kiln’s atmosphere of heat, sodium and a hint of reduction paint the form. The kohiki slip provides a creamy, parchment-like canvas, but it is the enyu process—the introduction of salt into the kiln at peak temperature, has brought a soul to the surface. This technique produces a subtle mesmerizing blush and minute texture to the surface encapsulating the clay. This warm, toasted pinkish bloom, surrounds the curves and lines of the guinomi like a slow-moving sunrise, a simple, poetic landscape. The contrast between these soft, peachy blushes and the occasional dark, crackled texture and the gohonde spots creates a visual depth that rewards long contemplation despite its simple nature. It is a vessel that does not demand attention through volume, but rather earns it through the quiet elegance of its complexion and the confident strength of its bones. Though this is just a quiet guinomi, it is in its appreciation and use that whispers of simplicity and the transitory expression of mono(no)awase fill the cups void to the lip.

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!