Illustrated
is a detail shot of a stoneware glazed hachi with overglaze painting in red and
green enamels. This tray form showcases another side of Kato Kenji who was best
known for his Persian blue pottery and as this piece shows he was quite adept
at making stoneware pottery and wonderful enamel painting. In fact, Kato Kenji
was so well known for these enamel painted hachi that Arakawa Toyozo mentions
them in; THE TRADITION AND TECHNIQUE OF MINO POTTERY and one was choosen as
part of a traveling exhibition of modern Japanese pottery that toured the
United States a number of years ago which included the likes of Arakawa,
Tomimoto, Rosanjin, Kawai and Hamada. Though much of his overglaze enamel work
is also influenced by the pottery of ancient Persia and the Middle-East, this
decoration is purely Japanese in inspiration and execution and I can not help
but be impressed by the wispy and quick pace that the design vokes. It is
important to see the varying styles of a potter and this hachi shows just one
facet in the arsenal of Kato Kenji's pottery from traditional Mino-yaki,
Temmoku and Persian influenced pottery and a few surprises in between.
.JPG)