It
is not like there aren't a myriad of attributes that make Shigaraki pottery a fascinating and endless wonder. As I look into various chawan
there is another characteristic that can be seen; using light on the interior
looking on the outside or on the outside looking at the interior, areas where
there is lots of melted feldspar shine like stars in a night sky, a Shigaraki
constellation. The see-through feldspar inclusions dot the landscape of true
Shigaraki clay making for windows of translucent light to occur under the right
conditions. The walls need to be just the right thickness for these apparitions
to appear, a very "yugen" experience. As the bowl is fired, the
coarse feldspar inclusions in the clay become molten, some boil up through the
surface leaving the tell-tale characteristics of Shigaraki-yaki as tombo-no-me,
other just melt in place becoming opaque gems that convey light. It is like
Blake's allusion in Augeries of Innocence, except you can glimpse a ko-ucho
(small universe) on the interior of a chawan.
Illustrated
is a startling view from inside a Shigaraki chawan with a light source outside
the wall of the bowl. It really does appear like a small and concise universe
trapped inside the chawan.
"The
most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental
emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science." Albert
Einstein (1879-1955)
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