ONI-SHINO TAMADARE

Illustrated is a fine Oni-Shino vase by Tsukigata Nahiko. This form is one Tsukigata used quite frequently with sizes ranging from about 8" up to as much as 16". On this particular piece, there is a wonderful interplay of the iron and the white Shino glaze with a rich and vibrant green ash running down the face of the pot indicating its position in the firing. Tsukigata fired his pottery in an anagama much like his master, Arakawa Toyozo; the main difference being the intensity to which it was fired and the determined encouragement of ash build up that would then melt and run along the surfaces of his pots in tamadare fashion. If you look at this vase, you can see where the bulk of the ash built up on the upper third of the pot and then when the temperature was just right in the kiln, it began to cascade down the surface adding to the varying effects of the iron and Shino. Though I can imagine the pot without the contribution of the ash, it is not only the glazing, but the ferocity of the process that make Tsukigata's work truly unique and stand alone among the wide array of pottery now called (erroneously) Oni-Shino.

"Though old the thought and oft exprest; 'Tis his at last that says it best."  James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)