HAPPY NEW YEAR

Akimashite Omedetto Gozaimasu! L'Shana Tova! Bonne Anee! Feliz Ano Nuevo! Ein Gluckliches Neues Jahr! Buon Ano! Felix Sit Annus Novus! Godt Nytt Ar! Kul'am Wa Antum Bikhair! Gelukkig Nieuwjaar! Just wanted to take a moment to bid a fond adieu to 2014 and welcome in 2015.

Illustrated is a detail from a large wood panel carved by Kimura Yoshikazu of the kanji; JU or KOTOBUKI (寿), meaning "long life" or "felicitations". Carved to imitate the Edomoji "kanteiryu", the stylized script synonomous with Kabuki advertisements of the Edo period, the Ju kanji is sunken below the wood surface and then textured and painted with green gesso and would seem a fitting sentiment to usher in a new year.

"An optomist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves."

 

 

COOL BLUE TILE

Illustrated is a cool blue tile by legendary Karatsu potter, Nakazato Taroemon XIII (1923-2009). Using a rich black pigment, Nakazato has painted a classic E-Garatsu style design which he is well known for on this stoneware tile and then glazed it in a blue glaze he is also quite well known for. During the firing the pigment bled just enough to soften the design and create a unique interpretation of a classic design. Known for his unique use of inlay, tataki technique and brushwork, Taroemon XIII inherited centuries of Karatsu tradition through his father, Nakazato Muan (Ningen Kokuho) which he in turn has passed on to family, students and contemporaries alike. In much of his work, there is a directness and simplicity that draws from the past yet Taroemon strived to add the freshness of his times, Showa and Heisei in to all of his pottery.

"Not so much the painting of the tip of the brush but rather are so sensitive I would like to call them pictures painted by the heart." A quote from Kato Hajime discussing the myriad of brushed designs found on Karatsu pottery from the book; KARATSU by Johanna Becker, O.S.B.

RULE OF THREE

Up until a couple months ago, I had never had any chaire by Mizuno Takuzo come my way and just recently, a collector sent me two more to help find a new home for. Do chaire follow the "rule of threes"? The first one that came my way was a rather nice Oni-Shino style chaire, the recent two are Aka-Shino and Seto-Guro and I can see why they were collected together as both exhibit very similar characteristics in their presentation. The Aka-Shino piece has a tall and graceful form with two tiny additions to the shoulder with a rich and thick glaze with dark accents around the shoulder and a thick and foamy trail down the face of the pot. The Seto-Guro chaire also has a tall and noble posture accented by a dark, rich and textured surface with mimi-tsuki style additions running down from the shoulder and in both examples there is just enough clay showing to create a nice contrast with the glazed surface. It has been a pleasure to have all three of these chaire in hand to study and for the future, I can only hope the "rule of threes" always applies when it comes to pottery.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Wishing everyone out there who is inclined to celebrate a very Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanzaa and certainly a Festivus for the Rest-of-us to one and all.

IRON MUGS

I really like this kaki glaze that is on this pair of lobed iron glazed mugs and have been using it since the mid-90s. It is rich and active and breaks well on lines and sharp accents. It really is a glaze that can be used all by itself on a well thought out pot and is rather dependable to boot. The close-up shows the active crystalline structure of the surface and the mugs look different from every vantage point and in differing lighting. I honestly can not for the life of me remember where I got this glaze but I suspect I owe someone a hearty thank you; I'll be thinking about that person next time I am having a cup of tea!

CONUNDRUM

The chawan illustrated is from an old Tsukigata Nahiko catalogue, it is Oni-Shino though somewhat dark and ominous and punctuated by the bold kintsugi repair now holding the bowl together in bold and perfect imperfection. I have often looked at this illustration and the conundrum it poses; what it was about this particular chawan that made Tsukigata go through the herculean effort to salvage and repair the pot? I have seen a number of pictures where he is purposely breaking pots with a hammer so his typical sense of "quality control" seems to have eluded this bowl, the question still remains, what is it about this chawan that he felt compelled to save and re-envision the pot. I doubt I will ever get a thoroughly satisfying answer but every now and again I go back and study the photo with an eye to understand how this pot stood apart from others that found their way in to a pile of shards.

JUST A BOWL

Illustrated is an ovaled and lobed serving bowl with pulled handles opposite each other that aid both visually and functional. Using a Shino slip that I got somewhere along the way and an accent of black glaze around the top half of the bowl, this pot is typical of serving pieces I like to make now and again where I try to strip the pot to the fundamentals and let the form and minimal decoration tell the story. The close-up shows the richness of the flashed orange surface together with the deep, wet accents of the iron glaze. I like pots like this, thrown, pushed just a bit oval and then lobed and notched though never hiding the fact that the piece started out round on a potter's wheel.  It is a simple piece to my eye, after all, it is just a bowl, one of many.

ANY GIVEN BLUE MONDAY

I have had this detail shot on my computer for a while now and thought to use it on any given blue Monday and thought today was that day. Illustrated is a close-up of a large and award winning henko vase by the multi-talented Morino Taimei (b.1934). This vivid detail shot gives and insight in to the complexity of the glaze surface that was exactingly planned out but the artist allowed room for the surface to soften and move ever so slightly to create a more naturalistic design. There is a crystal effervescence to the surface where layered and resisted glazes work with each out with underlying glaze bubbling through each other. There is a wonderful balance of complexity and simplicity to the surface that when viewed as a whole creates a vivid, timeless and contemplative vessel that few can create and which Morino excels at. It is little wonder that this piece was singled out for award among a broad array of pottery at the 1993 Nikko-kai exhibition.

The original post with the full pot illustrated can be seen here;

http://albedo3studio.blogspot.com/2013/03/blue-monday-x.html

ADDED TOUCH

A friend sent me a file filled with Japanese pottery pictures the other day and in it were two pictures of the same chawan that I put together as a single photo. Illustrated is a E-Shino chawan by Hayashi Kotaro (1940-1981), brother and mentor of Hayashi Shotaro and one of the original post-war Mino stand outs. His work is clearly and firmly rooted in the Momoyama revivalist mode and though conservative, it is both fresh and invigorating. The surface and painting are just right for this generous bowl which is accompanied by an added touch of a thoughtful and considerate potter; a wrapping cloth with both painted image and signature to help protect the bowl. There are a number of potters who provided painted or elaborately signed cloths and shikishi (even kakejiku) with some of their best and exhibition pieces and others who do so on the request of a patron or collector or just on a whim. Either way the added touch goes a long way to tell the viewer, "I care about this pot and hopefully, you will as well".

TWO SIMPLE CUTS

Each and every chawan dictates what type of kodai that is appropriate to finish off the piece. When it comes to kodai, it is the less is more style that impresses, no muss, no fuss and the finished foot is fresh, casual and spontaneous. That being said, I love a strong yet casual pot with a casual kodai that looks like it was cut in two simple cuts and in the case of this Suzuki Goro kodai, that is exactly the case. Using a broken off piece of wood, shaped like a chisel, the fist cut goes around the outside of the foot to define it and the interior cut flows quickly removing the excess clay to finish the kodai. This photo is a screen capture from a DVD on Suzuki Goro and the whole process is fast, bold and an exercise in total commitment. The end result is a kodai that matches well with the bowl shape and is probably the result of 50+ years of making thousands of chawan; at some point one is bound to get the knack of it.

CONTRASTING TEXTURES

Illustrated is a close up of a kaki glazed molded octagonal tray form with accents of Kawai green and a chun like nuka glaze. I have used this combination over the years and the surface is rarely ever the same with contrasting textures that vary just a small amount to wildly. In this piece there is a nice amount of visual and tactile contrast making for a fun to use piece.

DREAM

Illustrated is a bold sometsuke plate by eccentric calligrapher, painter, potter, lacquer artist and exploiter of various other mediums; Sato Katsuhiko. Painted in rich, deep cobalt gosu, the porcelain plate was provided and Sato created a dreamy kanji, yume which means dream. Considering his background, his ability to merge 2-D and 3-D is nothing short of impressive but it is the wide array of works, styles, imagery and eccentricity that makes the works of Sato Katsuhiko so impressive and dynamic.

TETSU-SHINO

I put together this slideshow of a rather unusual and maybe even rare chawan by Kumano Kuroemon. The chawan is quite large and very rich in its presentation and is described as Tetsu-Shino, Iron Shino. The surface is a mixture of iron and Shino with a nice amount of natural ash to help activate the bowl which has created a bold and masculine appearance with a rather unique feudal keshiki. I have seen a few pots in this style, but this piece seems to be far more eloquent in its presentation than most and despite the dark and dramatic surface, it is a focused and contemplative piece that has a great deal to share. Large, complex and dynamic, this is Kumano at his best.

CIRCA 1973

A friend sent me a group of catalogues recently and in the package was two catalogues on Tsukigata Nahiko from 1973. 1973 was the first year that Tsukigata exhibited his new Oni-Shino and quite frankly it is amazing how far developed the style was considering I have seen pots from 1969 and 1971 that don't even hint at this revolutionary style. The illustration is of a Oni-Shino from one of the catalogues and is a form that he used for most of his career. Low and broad this mimi-tsuki Oni-Shino mizusashi has the quintessential Oni-Shino glaze that Tsukigata is known for and the piece has a complimentary lid with a generous knob to ensure a good grip by collector or tea master. Like many of his pots, there is an enigmatic air to the piece that is well balanced with certain aspects of Momoyama revival classicism that in many respects defines the work of Tsukigata over his career of nearly six decades.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone so inclined, a very Happy Thanksgiving. Though in many respects a truly American celebration, I can not think of anyone who doesn't have something to be thankful for and like many, my wife and I and even Khan the rocketcat have much to be thankful for. I hope that even though this day comes around once a year, you are able to find thanks each and every day.

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."  Thorton Wilder (1897-1975)

A SIMPLE MUG

Illustrated is a simple mug made by Bill Klock back in the 1990s. Thrown in stoneware with an iron slip under a Cardew Shino the decoration was made through the slip while it was still wet. Bill made this mug shortly after working in South Korea with Onggi potters and though not blatantly, it shows some influences of his year long stay. It is a straight forward and direct mug that has a no frills attitude and a comfortable handle and it and its mate has been in use in our household for about 20 years for everything from schnapps, baked beans, cole slaw, nuts, hot chocolate and everything in between. There is a subtle richness to the pot that is made infinitely better while in use as many great pots can testify. Thanks Bill.

"A home-made friend wears longer than one you buy in the market." Austin O'Malley (1858-1932)

SIDE FIRED II

Though the picture came out a bit shiny, it gives a good view of the molten interior of one of the side fired Oribe teabowl. The glaze on the top half of the bowl was thickly applied and the addition of ash and iron made the glaze flow like lava down the sides of the piece to pool at the bottom creating unique and rich flows. Luckily the pitch of the pot was just right or the glaze would have run right out of the bowl and on to the hunk of protective shelf just below. I have learned my lessons with runny glazes over the years and now fire such pots on pieces of firebrick or broken shelf. Better safe than sorry is this potter's motto.

HOT LAVA by the B-52s;

IN MEMORIAM

It was just about one year ago that pottery lost another great way too early. On November 20, 2013, Kirk Mangus (1952-2013) passed away rather unexpectedly leaving a void at Kent State University, among the wood fired community and with family and friends. I knew Kirk and it was his teaching style and ability that drew me to the KSU masters program. He was a driving task master who was always willing to teach, share and help with a clever smirk and a depth of knowledge and ability. Many of his pots shared the cast of thousands of characters that swirled about in his head and just as many found their way on to paper in a graphic and playful manner. Kirk was direct, as were his pots and his firings in electric, gas, wood and salt but he will be truly remembered for his pursuit and dedication to wood firing and the wood firing community. He is sorely missed by anyone he came in contact with.

Illustrated is a large, heavily carved and unfinished pot by Kirk Mangus. Ready to be wood fired it reminds me of all the pots he made and all the pots he was yet to make.

SLOW BLUE MONDAY

Like a number of locations today, it is a dreary, overcast, snowy, rainy day here in the central Mohawk Valley with temperatures hovering just above freezing. Add to the bleak weather the fact that a package was absolutely, positively supposed to arrive today but did not make its destination and you have some of the components for another slow blue Monday. Despite various tasks at hand and some well chosen music, today has somewhat mimicked the weather making for a slow Monday. To brighten the mood a bit, illustrated is a vibrant, bright blue Persian influenced tile by Ningen Kokuho, Kato Takuo. Framed and matted by pale blue-grey fabric, the painting can transport the viewer to another time and place with ease and this is just one of the gifts of this master of Toruko-ao style work. I am always amazed at how quickly a good pot can clear the mind and change a mood.

A novel twist on NEW ODRER's BLUE MONDAY;

SHOGA

At this point it shouldn't come as a surprise that I love good brushwork on clay or paper and the illustrated screen is no exception. Created by the avant-garde expressionist calligrapher, Morita Shinryu (1912-1998) this work is both powerful, expressive and visual poetry. During his lifetime, Morita was a major influence on calligraphers and expressionist painter in Japan and abroad and ranks as one of the most important calligraphers of the 20th century. Painted on gold flecked paper, these two bold kanji command their surface and hold the attention of the viewer whether you can read them or not; they are pure ink expression(ism) and raw emotion. Few have the spirit, confidence and intuitive ability necessary to make spontaneity work as well as Morita Shinryu.

"The final test of a painting, theirs, mine, any other, is; does the painter's emotions come across?"  Franz Kline (1910-1962)

MORE GELT

Illustrated is a larger version of a gelt box out of the same firing as the other one I posted. This one is glazed in a subtle purple glaze made from finely milled manganese carbonate and a touch of cobalt. The terra cotta box is decorated with black and white slip which shows up well through the glaze and creating a bit of dimension to the surface. The base glaze is something I found in a ceramics book from the 1950s and it makes a great low-fire amber, purple, burgandy and steel blue however since several of the ingredients are no longer available, like colemenite and Albany slip a number of adjustments had to be made which included using gerstley borate and dark yellow ochre/ red art combined as well as altering the percentages to get the formula to work. This particular box is about the largest I make, 4" diameter as the interior takes a lot of gold to cover top and bottom and until I try my hand at making my own gold luster, the commercially available luster is not exactly cheap limiting the scale to a modest  and affordable size.

"Gold like the sun, which melts wax, but hardens clay, expands great souls." Antoine Rivarol (1753-1801)

 

 

BUSHI-WAN

Illustrated is a Tsukigata Nahiko Oni-Shino chawan that used to belong to a collector friend of mine. At one time he had the largest group of Tsukigata pots that I am aware of outside of Japan which included a number of chawan, a magnificent chaire, a gem quality mizusashi, tsubo, hanaire and a framed tile to boot. But when I close my eyes this large brooding chawan stands out, its energy and presence palpable as if it were alive. The rich and molten surface frozen in time when Shino, ash and iron coalesce to create a statement about both potter and craft. There really is only one master of this style and this chawan a vivid exclamation about the spirit, determination and mystery of the art of Oni-Shino.

"This inanimate object, this pottery thing holds within itself thought and feeling in some mysterious way different from any other inanimate objects." Ted Randall (1914-1985)

WOOD & STRAW

I assembled a short video slideshow of a Hagi vase by Yamato Yoshitaka (1944-2010). The vase loosely based on ancient jade ritual vessels known as a "cong" which appeared as early as 3300 BCE; these forms are also seen in bronze, glass and ceramics, most notably in Chinese celadons. Covered in a glaze made of a mixture of wood and straw ash, the milky quality of the surface cloaks the carved, slip covered clay creating a number of color variations that run from milky blue to lavender making for a wonderful keshiki landscape. This pot has a sense of antiquity to it, despite being made in the past 20 years or so but this is one of the alluring aspects of this type of Hagi glaze and the touch of a potter who understands both his medium and its classical tradition.

SPIRAL

I am a big fan of the spiral and use it quite frequently on my pottery. It is one of the oldest known symbols used by man as decoration and to express both expansion and collapse. I have found over time that it helps animate a wide array of forms and I am particularly fond of using it as an all over pattern representing an infinite number of galaxies or possibilities. The illustrated large slip trail plate is covered in spirals of varying sizes and the form is animated by the devices which also drift off the edge of the pot extending the pattern ad infinitum.

"The path isn't a straight line; it's a spiral. You continually come back to things you thought you understood and see deeper truths."  Ritu Ghatourey

TANI-SAN III

Illustrated is a classic, medieval style uzukumaru vase by Tani Seiuemon. Though not very large in scale, it has something that gives it a larger than life appearance. The form is simple and the ash has nestled and run gracefully off the shoulder creating its own unique landscape while the carefully crafted mouth of the pot offers an invitation for use, a labor of love. I have long been a fan of the work of Tani-san and have seen hundreds of his pots over the years, most are striped of the superfluous and each piece seems to be created in a bare-bones style in which he relies on the kiln to finish dressing each pot. There is something elemental and comforting about the workman style pots of the countless potters who make pots simply to be used and enjoyed without ego or accolades and this is also what made many of the great pots of the Momoyama era.

"A man's best friend are his ten fingers."  Robert Collyer (1823-1912)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Here is a fun post for Halloween which has nothing to do with pottery and everything to do with childhood memories. I saw this double feature of "horror" movies back in 1967 or 1968 at a Halloween Scream Fest at the Stand Cinema in Plattsburgh, NY along with my best friend Chris. At the time the pairing of Jesse James/ Frankenstein's Daughter and Billy the Kid/ Dracula made perfect sense, since then all I can think is what the heck were they thinking and who in their right mind green-light these films. The times certainly have changed but there is always another really bad horror movie looming on the horizon and someone who will fund it. Enjoy at your own risk.

GELT BOX

It is funny how things start and despite the purpose, the origin of a piece sticks with you. I have always made covered pieces, including small covered boxes and the like all the way back to my CSU days. Just after I left CSU and set up my Hillbrook studio, I was making small covered box forms when a client asked me for something a bit specific. What she wanted was small covered boxes with a pre-determined diameter, that resembled tops (upside down mind you), that were brightly decorated and had the interiors covered in gold gilt. As I was to find out the boxes were to be gifts for Hanukkah and would be filled with Hanukkah gelt chocolate coins. The chocolates are wrapped in gold foil wrappers and resemble gold coins and commonly come in little mesh bags but my customer wanted to put them in something a bit fancier so I set about making a dozen of them for her, several which found their way to Israel and France. I have made them ever since, more specifically as small decorative covered boxes, but the origin of this little pot has never left me and even makes me a bit nostalgic for those days making pots in my basement in good old Cleveland.

FOUR SIGHT

There is a profound simplicity , honesty and beauty to the "ordinary" pottery of the original mingei movement. Pots that stressed utility and function married with common aesthetics that everyday people could connect with. There is a profund The pots of Hamada Shoji, Kawai Kanjiro, Murata Gen, Sakuma Totaro and Ueda Tsuneji (上田恒次) among others were inspired and created to be used and continue on varying folk traditions that seemed to be suffering at the hands of an unbridled output of industry and mass production. The Mingei movement like the Arts & Crafts Movement sought to bring the concept of the hand made back to the forefront as not to be totally over run by factory produced goods. Though the mingei movement has its proponents today, it was the first generation of mingei potters that helped launch a revolution among potters and whose influence is still felt today.

Among the early mingei potters, Ueda Tsuneji (1914-1987) stands out for the practical and elegant works that he produced in shinsha, seihakuji, hakuji and neriage. He apprenticed with Kawai Kanjiro and even studied wheel throwing with Hamada Shoji for a time, but it is under Kawai that he learned the "studio secrets" of the Chinese T'ang techniques of neriage and nerikomi. Though quite adept at a number of styles, Ueda's mastery of neriage stands out as bold and rich pattern integrated within his simple and common forms. Working in a variety of techniques, his neriage created overall patterns as well as designs woven into form. The illustrated mizusashi in four views shows how adeptly Ueda built pattern that worked with and enriched each sides creating four associated but individual views around the pot. Though neriage/nerikomi are common  enough techniques today, Ueda mastered the process through trial and error when few others sought to marry mingei pottery with long forgotten ancient techniques for everyday use and admiration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

E-SHINO II

I put together another slideshow of a chawan that I had pass through last week. This large and bold chawan in E-Shino style was made by Suzuki Goro and was both a handful and an eyeful as well. Casual in appearance, the bold iron decoration gives one the feeling of directness and spontaneity and above all it is uninhibited; probably the best description of Suzuki's work. About the only thing wrong with this chawan was the fact that it didn't stick around longer for me to study and play with, the large number of pictures I took will have to fill in the void.

OMOTE

Though most likely known for his Persian blue, Sancai and luster pottery, Kato Takuo (1917-2005) was first and foremost a Mino potter. Designated Juyo Mukei Bunkazai in 1995 for his Sansai/Sancai works, Takuo was a product of the Mino tradition and Kobei-gama's diversity before he became interested in Mid-Eastern pottery. Illustrated is a classic Kato Takuo Shino chawan, which along with Seto-Guro, he excelled at. This chawan has a wonderful tapering form and luscious surface which presents a great landscape further accentuated by the rich coloration of the piece. The horizontal ridge and the application of more glaze below it create an engaging face (omote) for this chawan and beckon to the observer, use me. There is a certain sophistication in the simplicity of good chawan and I think this bowl is no exception.

PORCELAIN SLIP AND ORIBE

Illustrated is a teabowl I made a short while back and used in a blog post about pinholing and excessive gas during firing. The bowl came out and it seems like I have most of the gas problem solved. The Oribe glaze is composed of both iron and copper and tends to pinhole now and again as part of its nature so a piece the size of the teabowl may end up with a couple of small and insignificant pinholes and I can live with that. The real point of the test is using the porcelain slurry slip giving the bowl a great tactile effect as well as being quite animated visually high lighting the varying shades and textures of the oribe glaze. I particularly enjoy how the glaze runs down the channels  made by combing the slip pooling around the base and creating a swirling copper blue-green effect adding more depth and variety to the surface. I think this glaze and slip are close to being as fine tuned as possible and there is some sense of reward in this problem solving but I suspect my testing is far from over.

"The reward of a thing well done is to have done it." Ralph Waldo Emerson

PRACTICED DESIGN

If you think of Shino in a broad sense, one naturally thinks of Muji-Shino, Aka-Shino, Nezumi-Shino and E-Shino and the stellar pots and surfaces of modern masters like Arakawa Toyozo, Kato Tokuro, Hayashi Shotaro, Suzuki Osamu, Wakao Toshisada and Hori Ichiro among others. Though there are variations within the glazes used by these and other Mino specialists, the glazes are readily identifiable and have a similarity in surface, appearance and styles. On the other hand there is Oni-Shino which varies radically from the traditional Shino and has such wild variations even within the context of what is that glaze. Though a number of modern potters make what they term Oni-Shino, for simplicity sake, I am only referring to the works of Tsukigata Nahiko. Tsukigata's use of Shino and iron together with ash from the wood firing created a myriad of effects and surfaces that had never been seen before his creation and rarely since his death in 2006, though his son, Tsukigata Akihiko carries on the style and techniques rather well. It is the serendipitous portions of clay, Shino and iron glazes together with a balanced addition of ash that builds spectacular surfaces that are conveniently stirred together with the assistance of the fury of fire in his anagama wood kiln. Each and every pot a canvas and each and every piece radically different but intimately connected in an exciting body of work.

Illustrated is a detail shot of a large Tsukigata Nahiko mizusashi that I recently handled. The contrast between the iron, ash and pure translucent Shino is quite astounding but the real standout variation is the state of the iron which has made glaze runs down the surface of the pot. If you look carefully, you see thousands of iron crystal speckles looking like copper filings in a rich Japanese lacquer as if painted intentionally on the pot. As you turn the pot and catch light from various light sources, the surface appears alive, moving and animated with what happens by inspired and well practiced design or fiery happenstance, though one can't thoroughly dismiss a determined potter's spirit either. I can't exactly say I am surprised at the rich variation in this pot or others by Tsukigata Nahiko, but I can say, I am constantly amazed by them.

"How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life." Marcus Aurelius

BLUE MONDAY XXI

I put together this slideshow from pictures I had taken some time ago, the bottle/vase is a Persian influenced piece, toruko-ao style by Kato Kenji. The vivid foliate underglaze decoration reminds me of both Persian tiles and illustrated manuscripts of a time long ago. This is a simple pot with a streamlined form created by panels along the surface that were made to decorate. I am always impressed by the attention to detail and all the effort that goes in to each and every pot by Kato Kenji, despite size, form or surface, he tried to create vivid and animated pots every time he sat at the wheel and later when putting brush to clay. I hope that sentiment is better understood through this slideshow.

NARUMI

Narumi-Oribe is one of the more playful styles of Oribe where instead of a white background a reddish one is used in its place. Over the reddish background the use of iron, black and white pigments are used to decorate the surface giving way to a great number of designs in playful, whimsical and representational depictions and it is possible the style originated from a particular type of textile design and decoration from the 16th and 17th century. I find this style very engaging as it really does have an animated and whimsical feeling which can be so eloquently seen in the modern pottery of Suzuki Goro and Ikeda Syugo. While getting ready for a kiln firing recently I decided to make up a quick narumi test by mixing red iron and titanium together which I added to a thinned down porcelain slip. The resulting image shows the test which was also over painted in white slip and black pigment and glazed over in my alkaline clear while the rest of the bowl was glazed in an iron rich Oribe. Though there is always room for improvement, the appearance came out rather well for such a spur of the moment indulgence.

ALL THAT GLITTERS II

Big and beautiful, this large porcelain tsubo is by pioneering potter, Ono Hakuko. Based on an ancient Chinese technique she learned from Kato Hajime, this melon form tsubo has vertical ridges that divide the form up with panels of gold filling in between each divide. The pot is covered in one of Ono's characteristic yellow glazes that accentuates both the gold foil and the simple noble form. It has been written that she spent over five years perfecting the Sung inspired kinsai technique and no potter before , during or after her has become as synonymous with this particular style. This is likely due in part  to her intuitive use of decoration and space and the unique feel, or atmosphere that her pieces illicit through years of countless experiments and trial and error. There is a wonderful narrative created on and below the surface of her pots that show how uniquely suited Ono Hakuko was to a style based on the past and yet so skillfully displayed and modern in her adept hands.

SHINO

After posting the Arakawa Toyozo Shino mizusashi last week, I remembered that somewhere I had another illustration of a similar design on a scroll painting. Illustrated is the image painted in ink from a mounted scroll, kakejiku by Arakawa. The image is a simple Shino chawan with a casual landscape decorating the bowl with the caption that reads; SHINO. It is unclear why the simple caption, but having seen a number of his scroll, several of this design and even more of his Shino chawan, this image is the epitome of Shino as the scroll clearly states.

"and when I think of the Momoyama, the first thing which floats to my mind is shino. If I think about shino, than Mino comes to mind. It seems as though shino has become rather famous."  Arakawa Toyozo

See this blog post for a previous version of the same image;

http://albedo3studio.blogspot.com/2011/09/chawan-scroll.html

IRON KESHIKI

Illustrated is a pot that you don't see every day, a casually glazed and decorated Shino mizusashi by Arakawa Toyozo. Though all Shino, the form has a certain amount of Karatsu inspiration in the making but the glaze and classic iron underglaze decoration of a mountain and tree landscape is all Mino and pure Arakawa. The thin glaze created a blushed hue in the firing rather than a more pure Shino white surface and there are areas around the top portion of the pot where ash has landed creating a very nice effect. The underglaze decoration used on this mizusashi is typical of Arakawa's work and can be seen on a large number of his pots though this particular rendition has a very Momoyama suiboku style feeling to the design easily at home painted in ink on paper as it is on ceramic. The gallery where the lid rests is fully glazed over and has no scars from wad impressions so the pot was made without a ceramic lid and comes complete with a custom made ro-iro lacquer one which highlights the rough wood grain. I guess I will always think of this pot as the mizusashi with the great keshiki with the wonderful landscape.

"The landscape belongs to the person who looks at it..."     Ralph Waldo Emerson

(Photo used with the permission of a private collector.)

WE ARE STARDUST

I spent the afternoon tooling pots on and off the wheel today while listening to a cd I made with some great 70s classics from Cat Stevens to CSNY and Joni Mitchell and thought to share the moment with two versions of one of the greatest and most pivotal songs of the 1970s, WOODSTOCK written by Joni Mitchell and preformed by her and another version by CSNY. Enjoy.

Joni Mitchell - WOODSTOCK

CSNY - WOODSTOCK

TOO MUCH GAS

I have been making a thickish white slip out of my porcelain slurry for a while now with a touch of soda ash and frit and find myself having a problem with too much gas being released during the firing and sometimes (?) causing pinholes. Since the slurry comes right out of the bucket as is, I have been playing around with ways to help eliminate the problem with mixed results and in one case the slip shivers off the pot after the glaze firing. Using smaller test rings I have made a few alterations and now fire the bisque a bit hotter and for a longer period of time. The last test batch showed promise so I threw a large teabowl this morning that will be my next step following the tested procedure. I also decided to go with a hakeme decoration as that seems to compound the pinholing problem so we will see what happens once the bowl is tooled, dried, bisque, and glaze fired. The more you change things the more they change! Should have paid more attention  to the philosophical concept of cause and effect and how it applies to chemistry, physics and pottery.

"In everything we ought to look to the end."  Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695)

SUPERSIZED

I recently saw a video from a Japanese TV show where they show a huge chawan made during the Meiji period, it was about two feet in diameter and it got me thinking again about volume and scale in relationship to chadogu, but chawan in particular. Though two feet is just a bit large for a chawan, the o-buri super sized Hagi chawan of Miwa Kyusetsu XI (Jyusetsu) spring to mind. Mostly made in last two decades of his life, some of Miwa's chawan are positively huge, what exactly is the intent? Do these chawan transcends mere function and practicality to be conceptual vessels or more a statement about chawan than necessarily being chawan themselves? I have seen a few of these pots in person, beyond the aspects of function, these pots seem infused with pure masculinity and bravado, sculpture intended for use and aesthetic appreciation. In a magazine somewhere, I have a photo of a Kyusetsu chawan on display in the tokonoma, as a basin with a flower floating in the bowl filled with water and in another book there is a Oni-Hagi teabowl that measures 21.8cm in diameter where the average chawan comes in somewhere around 12.5cm. Functional vessel, sculpture or purely an object for appreciation, I wonder if he didn't make them like this, simply because he wanted to and he could.

As I continue to contemplate  size, scale and volume, besides Miwa Kyusetsu, both Tsukigata Nahiko and Kumano Kuroemon come  to mind. For Tsukigata, the "bushi" (Samurai warrior) ideal would seem to be part of his motivation for creating such large and powerful chawan, but for Kumano, I have often suspected that his large chawan are created at such a scale simply to match the ferocity and intensity of the firing process where the pots and potter are pushed to the brink. As I survey his large chawan I can get caught up in fantasy and imagine such bowls in use by the likes of a Sumo Yokozuna (grand champion) or the Ogre of Mt. Oe (Shuten-Doji) should either partake of tea. Illustrated is a large Kuma-Shino chawan by Kumano Kuroemon. I took the picture with me holding the bowl for scale, I am 6'2" and wear and X-L glove for perspective and this bowl measures in at just over 16.5cm, I think the size of the pot is apparent. Though I have heard Kumano's works described as grotesque (in form and scale) by some, to me there is a brutal, honest beauty to these pots. Their stories and encounters with unheard of temperatures and firings are permanently fused within their surfaces and forms. There are few potters who decide to work at this scale and even fewer who can pull it off but Kumano alone has become synonymous with chawan (and spirit) that are larger than life.

CLOSE CALL

Illustrated is a picture of the bottom of a covered jar, the pot was glazed first in temmoku and then in my runny red iron glaze and is what is known as a close call. It is immediately apparent that the glaze is rather runny and if you are going to dance with the devil, best to build in a glaze trap just above the foot to slow down the momentum of the molten glaze. The other thing that shows up well in the picture is the glaze runs and thins down, collecting to create a crystalline like surface of mostly pure iron with reflective speckles scattered among the glaze runs. This effect shows up rather brilliantly in bright direct light or in sunlight and gives more depth to the glazed surface. This is obviously another one of those unpredictable happenings which makes working with these glazes all the more interesting, each pot comes out with its own individual version of the same two glazes.

SPOT

I made a short slideshow showcasing a nice, salt fired Persian box by Michael Simon, student of Warren Mackenzie. Michael is a master of the thrown and altered genre and his ability to manipulate clay in a natural and simple way is almost unparalleled in modern pottery. There are a number of subtle details to discover in Simon's boxes that are easily missed if the pot is not handled and I thought a slideshow of all the details would be a better insight into his box forms that a single picture in a book. I hope this helps.

"If I have made any valuable discoveries, it is owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent."   Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

ASKEW

Cloaked in various hues of hi-iro and ash with strong tsuchi-aji, this Shigaraki bottle-vase is by veteran potter, Otani Shiro. At first glance it appears a nice pot but on closer inspection it is easy to see that this is a pot that takes those 10,000 hours to create. The attention to the posture of the pot, the finish of the foot, defining its termination, the casual lean of the neck and mouth slightly askew all add up to make for a rather interesting piece. The flashed surface adds to the vertical nobility of the bottle and a subtle set of lines running around the shoulder are all of the intentional decoration that is needed. There is a profound sense of appropriateness that many wood fired pots possess as the potter gain mastery over just what to add without throwing the entire piece into visual chaos.

LIL'SPOTS

When I am using my iron glaze over temmoku there are a number of variables that dictate how the surface will come out. The illustrated detail shot shows a large number of iron crystal spots that appeared all of the surface of a teabowl. The general characteristic of the streaky, running glaze is there but the surface is punctuated with all these little spots of iron making for a neat effect. This happens every now and again but is not something I can count on but if it were 100% predictable, what fun would that be?

BOOK COVER

I know a book dealer who from time to time finds books on Japanese pottery and recently he found a nice set of five books on "famous" potters of the Showa period. As I unpacked the group, each in their own protective boxes, the first volume I pulled out immediately got my attention. On the full color dust jacket is a fine Tsukigata Nahiko kinuta vase. Being fond of not only the form, but the potter, I thought it rather telling that this was the pot chosen for the cover where all the other illustrations are B/W. Some of the other volumes had pictures of Koyama Fujio, Miwa Kyusetsu and Kusube Yaichi on the covers so obviously both author and publisher thought extremely highly of Tsukigata and his work. Illustrated is a photo of the book cover, a very fine and rustic looking Oni-Shino kinuta-hanaire, the surface is a rich blend of glassy and semi-dry ash creating a wonderful landscape and the fissures that are a by-product of a tumultuous and brutal firing add a charm to the pot, creating a timeless beauty. Having seen a number of this form by Tsukigata, I can say they have a great sense of strength and honesty that few pots can match. On occasion I use the term "book cover pot" to emphasize the importance and bearing of a piece, in this case it has that and so much more.

"You can't judge a book by its cover."  Old Anonymous Idiom