Up for Monday is a rich and lustrous
hiki-dashi-guro tokkuri by Gifu-ken Important Prefectural Cultural Property
(2003) and Mino specialist, Ando Hidetake (b.1938). This tokkuri has a pleasant
and inviting form with slightly diagonal ribs dividing the piece and making the
pot seem a bit bigger than it is. The deep black glaze has a wonderful
landscape with a profuse amount of curdling to the surface which helps give the
piece a rather timeless appearance. The trick to this glaze is that it must be
snatched out of the red hot kiln at precisely the right moment, at the height of
the glaze's maturity to create such a perfect black pot. Many a piece shatter
due to the extreme shock of going from red-hot temperatures down to the ambient
temperature outside of the kiln, it is a risky technique. Though a high risk/reward
maneuver, a positive outcome is bolstered
using the right clay and glaze and having decades of experience with the
process.
Ando Hidetake is truly a master of many Mino
traditions which he learned under the tutelage of ceramic giant, Kato Tokuro.
Ando creates exceptional works in Oribe, Shino, Ko-Seto, Ki-Seto and hiki-dashi-guro
style Seto-Guro. It is nearly impossible to discuss Mino-yaki without
discussing the works of Ando in the same sentence as Suzuki Osamu and Hayashi
Shotaro. Though his pottery has a more restrained and understated elegance to
that of many of his contemporaries, he has obviously traveled along the route
which best fits his style and once you have seen his pottery, the unique and
personal qualities of his work are readily identifiable.
"I cannot deny making ceramics is like
entering a labyrinth. From selecting the clay to finding it is a simple line into
which I must find a way of weaving myself." Ando Hidetake
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