Illustrated is a Shigaraki chawan by Minagawa Takashi
(b.1930), the bowl was thrown and hand molded. The potter added a vertical texture
about the surface before it was fired in an anagama, creating additional
runways for the melting ash to fill and presenting a wonderful feeling in hand.
Having studied with his father, Minagawa Kiyotaka, also a Shigaraki potter and
the illustrious chajin (tea master) and potter Komori Shoan (1901-1989),
Takashi inherited a vast amount of technical and aesthetic knowledge which he
put to great use in a style that is readily identifiable as his own work. His
pieces have an immediate rustic simplicity (wabi) to them and in many ways harkens
back to chawan of the Momoyama and early Edo days though there is also
something very contemporary about the forms, surface and attitude of the
pottery. Though horizontal, the texture
is very reminescent of the ubiquitous bamboo or reed blinds (sudare) seen all
over Japan and in art going back to at least the Heian-jidai. His pottery has
been exhibited widely in Japan and he is represented in a number of prestigious
galleries but probably his greatest accolade is his dedication to a tradition
that is as much based on feudal Shigaraki ware as it is the sensibilities of
the way of tea (chanoyu) and the chajin.
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