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)
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