Illustrated
is a rather solitary henko form by Kawai Takeichi. I like this form quite a bit
as it is simple, has rather honest lines and acts as volume for a expressionist
style painting created through glaze and fire. The base glaze for this pot is
Takeichi's simple ash glaze which is a good back drop and helps activate the
additions of shinsha, tetsu-yu and a copper based addition to the frenetically executed
decoration. Though clearly not by his master, Kawai Kanjiro, the concept, form
and pace of execution can easily be spotted in this piece which is a wonderful
addition to the Kawai school of pottery making though a clear voice articulated
by Kawai Takeichi rings true in this piece as it does for the vast majority of
his work. It must have been intensely difficult adding to a modern tradition
without making copies and various other stylistic faux-pas related to one's
master while clearly creating a large body of work the is a blend of one's
heritage and one's inner voice. As I survey Kawai Takeichi's body of work it is
obvious that he learned so well from a master that taught above all that,
"everything is but an expression of the self"*.
(*From
THE WINDOW OF LIFE by Kawai Kanjiro)
.JPG)