Illustrated
is a 4-Vue collage of a very nice Tsukigata Nahiko chawan. This is one of those
'rare" pieces that is actually ours that I post as it seems like 98% of
what is up on my blog either belongs to fellow collectors or was just passing
by. What makes this pot unique is not the pot at all but that it was our very
first Tsukigata Nahiko piece and that it was a gift from a very good friend who
knowing my passion for the potter just went and sent it to us one day a number
of years ago. As a collector, the gentleman who sent it to Mindy and I was also
a passionate collector with a keen eye who put together a rather impressive
collection which had a number of Ningen Kokuho potters as well as individuals
like Hamada, Kawai, Rosanjin, Kato Tokuro and Arakawa Toyozo. Several years
back he decided to get rid of his collection selling off some and donating the
rest to the Nelson-Atkins in Kansas City and the San diego Museum of Art. Now
back to the chawan which has a great form and foot with a soft, vellum like
sheet of ash that wraps around the face of the bowl which than gives way to an
area of rich, shimmery iron and active feldspar. The lip has a sensuous and
continuous undulation that guides the eye around the bowl only to draw the
viewer in to the super wet and glassy build up of once molten ash that coats
the teapool as it runs down the sides, frozen in a moment when the stoking of
the wood kiln stopped and the surface began to coalesce. I should say that
despite the slightly different appearance of the ash face this is a classic
Tsukigata chawan in every respect from form, surface, kodai and the fact that
the violent and ferocious nature of its firing is written all over the surface;
think MOBY DICK manifest in clay!
.JPG)