FINELY BLENDED

I made this video in haste and it is a bit shaky but I think it conveys the volume and presence of the bowl. Made by Mino potter, Kato Toyohisa (b. 1962) the surface is a complex mixture of texture and color from chocolaty browns, iron reds, steely grey-blues, Murasaki purple, tans and orange and deep, snowdrift white much of it speckled with fine white particles like fine snow or pure white sand. The form is robust and large in the hand and is classic for the potter  a blend of the Momoyama archetype and modern reinterpratation of the Mino chawan at which Kato is rather adept. Though based in the past, this is a thoroughly modern bowl that uses 20th century liberties to create a novel approach to the glazing of a Shino chawan by combining thickness, color and textures that if only described would seem to contradict and clash with each other but in actuality the blend works quite well. The richness of the various uses of Shino make this a rather stunning bowl visually and tactilely and lets face it, few potters take such risks in glazing and end up with a chawan that suceeds on a number of different levels, I hope the video shows that to full effect.