For
a while I have been exchanging emails and photos with a collector in Japan who
has a strong interest in the works of Kakurezaki Ryuichi and Kumano Kuroemon.
He is primarily interested in pots he will use and has shared photos of his
Kumano guinomi and tokkuri which look like that would be exceptionally
enjoyable in the using. Large, generous and honest pots made to be used and
stand the rigors of an intense firing, Kumano's pots have an unbridled masculinity
and strength that few other modern potters infuse in to their pottery. When I
think about Kumano, I am immediately reminded of Tsukigata Nahiko, not
necessarily in the particular aesthetic but in the clay bravado and spirit
which harkens back to the Samurai culture in certain respects. Illustrated is a
photo the fellow collector sent recently after a visit to Kumano Kuroemon's
studio in which "the Bear" is looking over a group of recently fired
guinomi, most with their firing wads still attached. This is pottery in the
raw, unfiltered and surely as honest as it get; a glimpse in to the heart of
the process.
(Photo courtesy of a fellow collector)
.JPG)