ON THE ROAD

My wife and I got on the road last Friday to go up and see Bill & Anna Klock. Admittedly, it had been way to long since I had been up, especially given its close proximity. When we got there, it was like stepping back in time to our last time wood firing together. The property, house and studio conjure up memories from those beginning days of making pottery. In an odd way, you can go home again.


Bill took me into the studio; we talked about pots, potters, glazing and materials. The materials were one of the reasons we went up. Bill is down-sizing his material reserves, keeping the essentials for the pottery he is currently making. We rummaged through the chemicals and I was able to pack 600 pounds or so in our car. There was the redart, G-200, Albany slip, Barnanrd slip, Michigan slip, Frits 3124 and 3110, rutile, ochre, nephaline synite, ultrox, wood ash and others. Though the materials were the premise for us to go up, honestly, it was just great to be up there and see Bill.

Anna put on a wonderful lunch, catering to my peculiar eating habits which ended in a great piece of her homemade orange cake and a typical cup of tea. Everything at Bill’s revolves around a good cup of tea, a habit transplanted from his days at the Leach pottery and his subsequent trips to England and St. Ives. In recent years, Bill was invited by the new owners of the Leach pottery to help stabilize and sort out the kilns and buildings.

After lunch, we toured Bill’s wood working studio, his other passion. Bill has large stockpiles of lumber from his property including wonderful slabs of oak and butternut. He is currently working on a modern set of chest of drawers that has an Arts & Crafts, Stickley feel to it. The house shows off other pieces he has made including a computer table, a writing desk, chairs and various cabinetry. Obviously, just something else to keep Bill busy.

It is obvious now, that I need to get up to Bill’s more often. It was an enjoyable day trip and refreshing to interact with the person I hold responsible for getting me into pottery and helping keep my work on track. Once the car was fully packed, we exchanged pots. I gave Bill a small covered jar in my medieval green glaze in rozome style and in return I got a small vase with brushed slip, broad powerful foot and opaque ash celadon. As a parting gift, I could not be any happier!

CURATORS

In a recent email exchange with a friend, he was extolling the pathos of “actual ownership” of objects which we commune with. “We are only temporary caretakers of our collections through history. With contemporary Japanese ceramics we may be the first or early in the list of curators of the pieces we ‘own’, but eventually they pass along like blowing clouds. It is a bit sad is some regards, but on the other hand is a form of immortality in an offhand way if we prove to be good caretakers. I can't help to think of the long line of "owners" of the great Momoyama pots we are lucky enough to be able to view today because over so many years individuals held a piece of baked ceramic in high enough regard to protect it for prosperity. (HW)” Over the years I have thought about our conservatorship, curatorial duties and responsibilities we have for these objects. We are entrusted to care for and restore these pots (and other objects) and pass them on in the condition we found them or better off than they arrived.

A short thought, years ago I was exceptionally fortunate to handle a very famous Momoyama period Shino mizusashi at the CMA. As I felt through the walls and lip, I could feel where the potter had attached coils to coil and throw the piece. I can feel the rhythm of the clay in its walls and how he added more clay to make the gallery for the lid. Through my senses, it was like I was transported back to see the potter create the pot. As I continued to handle the pot, I thought of the history that swirled around it, the owners, users, tea ceremonies that it was part of with famous and possibly infamous users. It is the proverbial, if only it could talk, the tales it could tell.

This mizusashi has outlasted countless owners, curators. The care and responsibility for this pot, and countless other objects, rest in the hands of the owner of the now; tomorrow, it will be introduced to someone new and begin a whole new dialogue and visual narrative. How it is that countless generations have seen fit to preserve and safeguard this pot is a testament to its presence, bearing and honesty despite the ever present reality that no single individual can “own” anything. In time even the pharaoh’s have given up their great collections and no one can totally possess an object, we are all just curators.

(Thanks H!)

DAIKOKU-SHISHI

I have previously mentioned that Tsukigata Nahiko was a prolific and wide ranging artist as well as being known for his patented Oni-Shino. Illustrated is one of his fun and animated bronzes made in a larger edition. This 6” tall bronze is of a jocular shishi (lion guardian) figure imitating Daikoku, god of earth, rice and wealth, identified with his mallet and sack of rice. The sculpture was seemingly quickly and boldly rendered and then cast in bronze and given a brilliant gold gilt finish. This bronze, like so much of his work is notable for the amount of sheer energy and enthusiasm captured in a static object. From pottery, painting, calligraphy and sculpture, Tsukigata Nahiko made excellent use of each medium.

IPTV; TOOL-TIME

For your Friday viewing pleasure, a short video of me tooling a small terra cotta v-bowl. I also have a short video of the same bowl being slipped and carved and will post that another time along with the finished, glazed piece.

WHAT'S NEXT

Illustrated is a teabowl from a recent firing in my temmoku and tetsu-yu glazes. I have been trying to figure out what else can be done with the iron glaze, besides just dipping and here is one of my recent attempts. The bowl has been finger racked around the body creating intervals of thinner glaze, hence the vertical pattern. Now I realize it is still dipped, but it does have me thinking, what’s next?

KOWARI TETSUYA

A little over two years ago, I was surfing around the internet looking at pictures of Japanese pots. I stumbled on a website that specialized in shuki; guinomi and tokkuri. On this site was a group of eight guinomi, unlike any I had seen before. They were glazed in wet and luscious Oribe green and were all frenetic in appearance. Most were mentori style with abrupt planes of angles, the others spontaneous and loosely thrown, all begged to be picked up, handled and used. The potter responsible for these pots is Kowari Tetsuya(小割哲也). As I searched around the web, I found more of his highly articulated and animated works; guinomi, yunomi, hachi, chawan, mizusashi, even lamps and sculpture. I was hooked by the diversity and variety of his work and specifically the way in which he handled clay. Sometimes when I am looking at Kowari-san’s works, especially his Oribe pieces, Jazz springs to mind. The forms and surfaces have that flowing improvisations I think of from good Jazz, along with a sense of syncopation in the way surfaces and forms run from smooth to rough and from curve to angles. This work has a rich visual vocabulary and an endless dialogue with the viewer.


Kowari-san (b.1970) graduated from Meiji University in 1992 with a degree in architecture from the engineering department and finished his graduate work two years later in 1994. In 1997 he started ceramics with his father, Kowari Yoshitsugu, who is a self-taught and basically set about teaching himself pottery without any formal apprenticeship. Within three years, he had his first major exhibition of his works in 2000 with exhibits at the Osaka branch Takashimiya and at the Shizuoka Prefectural Fine Arts Museum.Since that time, Kowari-san has had a number of exhibitions and shows and has also been published in several books including Kuroda Kazuya’s (of Kuroda Toen Gallery) publication on Heisei Era potters.

His studio and kiln, MUSHIN-GAMA are in the southern shadow of Fuji-yama at Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture. There he built his studio and both a gas kiln and an anagama 5 meters in length. He fires his kiln twice a year. The kiln takes approximately five days to fire and another five days to cool. Unfortunately, Kowari-san’s kiln was damaged in the recent earthquake, but he is in the process of repairing the damage. He also fires his gas kiln more frequently for various pottery including his Oribe style pottery. He uses a variety clays from Shigaraki, Iga and Mino and from these, he makes his Anagama-Shino, Shigaraki, yakishime ware, kohiki and Oribe ware. As mentioned before, Kowari-san makes a lot of sake related pieces; tokkuri and guinomi as well as a broad range of table wares, tea ceremony pieces, vases, tsubo, lamps and sculptural works.

Being self-taught, Kowari-san’s approach to clay is both based in tradition but free of the normal constraints of a specific tradition. He studies “Momoyama to make modern Shino and Oribe” as well as looking to potters who ushered in the revival of the Mino traditions. “Arakawa Toyozo and Kato Tokuro are grand, I love and respect them very much.” He understands their contribution to the revival of the modern Momoyama aesthetic and uses these archetypes as a springboard for his modern interpretations of this ideal. He also is very conscious of the West in terms of pottery. He is fond of Voulkos as a western potter for his pushing clay boundries and regards Bernard Leach highly for his impact on the West as well as the East.

Illustrated are three chadogu (tea ceremony piece) by Kowari Tetsuya. The first piece is a tall and highly animated Oribe mizusashi. The piece is made from a rough clay and has accents of iron running through the rich Oribe glaze and the form is further accented with spontaneously attached lugs just below the mouth of the pot. The whole pot seems to have just happened and is both fresh and modern with that hint of the Momyama aesthetic.

The second illustration is of an Anagama-Shino chawan. The broad form with lazily roving lip, make me immediately think of the works of Kato Tokuro and earlier Momoyama chawan. The chawan has been glazed in an iron glaze and Shino and has been further activated by a generous coat of natural ash glaze running down the face and interior of the chawan. Like most of his work, the kodai, foot is quickly and unhesitantly addressed. It is modern in its approach yet is very much in harmony with the overall bowl. The shape is strong and the surface is rich making for a very contemplative keshiki (landscape).

The last illustration is an Oribe mentori chawan. The rough clay of this chawan has been heavily faceted, creating a chawan which is right at home in the hands. The faceting create a wonderful posture and the bowl appears to be moving forward despite resting securely on the kodai which is again, in harmony with how the chawan was made. The chawan was glazed in Kowari-san’s Oribe glaze and was fired on its side using clam shells as props to hold the bowl off the kiln shelf. The glaze ran around the pot to culminate in Oribe bidoro drip just at the center of the piece and the clam shell impression have formed wonderful pate de verre style accents created from glaze and calcium residue of the clam shells. The way the pot was fired is written on its face and makes for a great narrative of modern pottery. Though this chawan draws from various archetypes, it is a thoroughly modern bowl created using the Momoyama ideal and Kowari-san’s own creativity. It is a great addition to the Oribe tradition.

After searching around the web, I was able to not only find galleries who carried Kowari-san’s work, but I also found his website;
http://www.mushingama.com/index.htm
I emailed Kowari-san and found out that he could write very good English, which is a good thing. Even though I can read kanji, my written Japanese is very poor. He graciously sent me pictures and agreed to answer some of my questions for this short post. As both collector and potter, he must have sensed my enthusiasm for his work and Kowari-san has been very open about his pottery and how he works. Should you decide to email him, please tell him, Craig Bird sent you!

(Pictures used with the permission of the potter and a private collector.)

SILVER LEAVES

Illustrated is another chawan by Iga potter Banura Shiro. I have written about him in prior posts, so I will skip the biographical details. This tantalizing kuro-wan, black bowl, has Banura’s trademark black textural glaze over a redish clay body. After the chawan was glaze fired, it was rubbed with a gold (gilt) wash over the black which is barely noticeable accept in the right light. He then painted silver(ginji) leaves over the surface which accentuates the broad base and tapering form. As I look at this chawan, it reminds me of looking at the far off Fujiyama through sparse foliage. The concept and evocative form harken back to the ceramic pieces of the Rimpa masters and shows homage to Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743), the founder of this style.

THE TRADITION CONUNDRUM

“It is meaningless just to inherit tradition of [Japanese Pottery], unless you add to your own ideas….. but if you overdo yourself, you might ruin the traditions. The point is to make the best use of the old methods and ideas.”
Arakawa Toyozo

“Tradition does not mean the living are dead, but the dead are living.”
Gilbert K. Chesterton

TETSU-YU TEOKE

I must admit, I have always been fascinated, even in awe of the handled henko forms of Kawai Kanjiro (1890-1966). Their monolithic presence, despite their size, is undeniable and from my first encounter with them, I was in love. The handled press molded henko I am referring to were produced during the early 1960s and consist mainly of three styles; sancai (tri-color), gosu blue over thick hakeme and his rich temmoku with splashes of vivid green and orange-red overglaze. These forms are exceedingly evocative and though absolutely Kawai’s own creation, they harken back to the traditional teoke (water bucket) forms of Edo period Japan. The earlier teoke archetype is seen in clay, lacquer, wood and even occasionally metal. These forms ran the gamut from artist produced works to the everyday craftsman’s mingei.

Once I made my way to Cleveland, it was not uncommon to see Dick and Patty Schneider both making handled basket forms in varying sizes and styles. I was initially intrigued and like learning to assemble the pieces parts of teapots, I tried out the fundamentals of the handled basket form as well. Illustrated is a medium size teoke basket form from my last firing. It is glazed in my temmoku and tetsu-yu and though a bit difficult to see, the form is ever so slightly lobed and the glaze has run straight down the soft indented line. The runny nature of the glaze accentuates the vertical nature of the form and keeps the relatively undecorated form and handle from being dull. When I unloaded the kiln, I was pleasantly surprised by how the glaze “fermented” around the flat surface of the lip; it created an interesting pattern that I couldn’t have planned any better.

PIECES PARTS

It is an amazing process looking at pots. The eye takes in the whole image and the brain immediately reduces the image to its all of the pieces parts. From the foot to the lip or lid, the brain goes to work looking for errors, inconsistencies and faults. The brain races to the memory bank and compares the whole and its parts to stored away images of explary pieces and compares and contrasts the one to the other. What is truly amazing about this process is that given enough experience, this takes just seconds to process all this information.

I used to wonder if the same rules that would apply to a Greek urn, would also apply to the rough and assymetrical ware (chaki) of Japanese tea ceremony (chanoyu). I realized that once you establish a visual vocabulary of those pots, the same type of processing the form and surface takes place. It would seem to be all about image recovery within your memory where your brain applies principles of the “golden mean”, geometry and established archetypes on each and every pot. The dialogue between pot and viewer is sacrosanct and as the poet John Keats extolled in his poem, ODE TO A GRECIAN URN (1819);

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need know.”

“Aesthetically a pot may be analyzed for its abstract content or as a humanistic expression; subjectively or objectively; for its relationship of pure form; or its manner or handwriting and suggestion of source of emotional content.” This quote from THE POTTER’S CHALLENGE by Bernard Leach is the premise for why people bond with pottery or objects in general. It is the dialogue sparked by the potter who has done his/her best to capture their “humanistic expression” which carries on a dialogue with the viewer. The “emotional content” of the pot is the trigger that connects potter/pot to the viewer and begins the journey and study of the object, its components and its source.


The illustration is from THE POTTER’S CHALLENGE by Bernard Leach.

SOME POTS...................

I have recently started converting some older 35mm slides to digital images and talk about a stroll down memory lane. I have made a lot of pots, I am not bragging just stating a fact. In fact, looking through all the slides I am jolted back to various places I have worked, themes I was working through and styles and varying ideas, many of which have continued to this day. There is majolica, slipware, abstract resist, still life, Persian influenced pots and many others. I am somewhat surprised at the number of directions that have worked out and even more that hit a brick wall, think “twister-ware”. I started the “twister-ware” while my wife was out of town and when she got back it was, “what were you thinking?”. Needless to say, the “twister-ware” has remained a bench mark for a bad idea.

Illustrated is a set of altered pitcher and mugs glazed in a rich Persian blue glaze over black and white slip. This set was made for a show about ritual and was entitled; Gathering. Having made all these pots, sometimes my mind wanders to wondering where they are now? Have they found a purpose, are they being used? It is funny that some pots or sets of pots, stand out in your mind and every once and a while you wonder if they still have something to say to the owners……

DOWN SIZING

I have a friend who has been collecting mostly Japanese art since the 70s. Recently, he moved from a fairly large and spaceous home to a much smaller one. This reduction in wall space and storage space has led him to seriously down size his collection and that includes lots of pots. Over the years, he had collected mostly modern Japanese pottery, with a concentration on Hagi and he has had me sell a number of the pieces on my Trocadero website. In fact, most of the Hagi-yaki sold on my site have been from his collection.

He recently decided to part with several more Hagi chawan by a diverse group of potters; Yamanae Seigan, Mashita Tadashi, Tanomura Shogetsu II and Kaneta Sanzaemon VII. I have put these pieces up on my website and invite you to take a look at your leisure;
http://www.trocadero.com/albedo3studio/catalog.html

As collectors, we never really own things. Rather we are caretakers and conservators of these objects, insuring they are passed along in the condition we acquire them, or in restored condition. All objects move about in time and this down sizing collector is setting these in motion to find a new resting spot with new collectors who will care for them, appreciate them and have their own dialogue with them.