Though not without its organic qualities, this
chawan by Banura Shiro is radically different than the chawan I posted by
Kumano Kuroemon the other day. Banura Shiro had a wonderful knack for creating
work that has an honest and spontaneous quality despite the fact that his work
was well conceived and executed within a high degree of exacting control. I
would suggest that the first step in his work was the design or concept of the
piece followed by the creation of the canvas, in this case the making of the
classic Banura chawan form. Once the pot was made, the general, overall texture
was created and then the design/ decoration was applied and for this chawan
that would then include a post-firing application of a gold rubbed finish that
was finalized by a low temperature firing to lock in the surface. I have always
found that despite the fact that Banura Shiro relied on variations of this
chawan form and his leaves (foliage) design, each and every pot has a singular attitude
and fresh appeal that allows a connected body of work to be populated by unique
and individual pots.
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