A while back I posted a chaire by Oni-Shino
pioneer, Tsukigata Nahiko. The previous chaire was a classic Oni-Shino piece
with all of the qualities one should think of when thinking about the style. The illustrated chaire is a bit
different, looking a bit like a seated Daruma character from a Zen painting and
hardly recognizable as Oni-Shino. The Shino surface is tinged with ash coating
the piece creating a beautiful light blue-green surface with the face of the
piece painted where fierce scorching and ash built up. One of Tsukigata's true
strengths as a potter was understanding his thick, complex surfaces and their
effect on form. The choice of form and varying surface and the possibilities was
paramount to his work and if you survey his pots, there is an appropriateness
that was carefully created, it may also account for why so many pots were
destroyed. The very nature of the violent process would create surfaces that
did not marry well with their forms and by necessity, they would meet the hammer.
This pot is the perfect blend of form and glaze and like the previous chaire, a
wonderful miniature universe the fits into a beautiful silk bag.
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