Back in the day, yes, I said back in the day, a show on
PBS (BBC) had all of my attention. The show was CONNECTIONS narrated and
written by science historian James
Burke. Ultimately, the show spawned additional series of the same name and he
was able to trace and tie the collection of seaweed for the production of
Scotch whiskey to the development of the atomic bomb, no short feat. As a
history major, this type of thought and linkage was fascinating and over the
years I have wondered if the same can not be done within the context of either
world or country specific ceramic traditions.
I think it would be positively amazing to see how the production of
Momoyama era chawan could be somehow linked to the movement espoused by Shoji
Hamada. I am sure there is a way to trace this genesis of ideas as was done by
Burke for his series. The connections and conclusions drawn would be nothing
short of fascinating; it would be like tracing the evolution of pottery styles
from country to country along the old Silk Road among a great variety of important
potters and pottery traditions.
For those unfamiliar with CONNECTIONS and James Burke, he
is a clip of one of his shows as hosted on Youtube, entitled, Balanced Anarchy;
.JPG)