BRIEF ENCOUNTER

I had an extremely brief encounter with a rather nice pot by Takauchi Shugo yesterday at which time I took a lot of photos of it and then posted it up on Trocadero all as a favor to a friend. The pot in question is the illustrated Oribe te-oke, perhaps the quintessential form associated with Takauchi Shugo in which the the clay was roughly thrown leaving a variety of marks around the piece at which time he then hacked away vertical channels disrupting the surface and adding a sense of dramatic tension and even a hint of aggression to the piece. The top of the form was also quickly cut and a handle was skillfully added to the form which adds a striking visual presence to the pot and then it was glazed and fired in his trademark, rich Oribe glaze which has accentuated every mark made. The encounter of about two hour was brief as it went about as quickly as it arrived; it arrived, it was re-packed, it was shipped. I enjoyed this brief encounter but would have been just as happy have more time to spend with it but hopefully the 100+ photos and possible slideshow video down the road will be reminder enough of the time spent well.

STORY TELLER

As I think about the very first pieces of pottery that were repurposed as chawan, I think about simple, humble rice bowls, pots from kilns in China, Korea and various spots around Kyoto and Japan, pieces that were as uncomplicated as possible. To put it as succinctly as possible in a modern colloquial, these bowls were no fuss, no muss, they were mostly unconsciously created, even disposable in some respects as even potters of that time period may have had the mind set, "you use them, you break them, we'll just make more". When I saw this ever so simple chawan by Matsuzaki Ken, it is that origin that sprung to mind; simply conceived, simply thrown, tooled and fired, focused clarity of purpose. From my perspective making a simple bowl that is alive, animated and is not boring is a true feat, almost herculean in nature but I think this pot has succeeded, the form is strong and honest, broad and inviting with a certain rhythm thrown into the clay perched atop a classic foot the elevates and helps define the narrative of the chawan. The firing is always risky but in this case, it must have been in the exact right spot for the piece as it is blanketed in a near total glaze of natural ash that adds warmth, texture and a visual appeal to the chawan that perhaps a few inches in any other direction may not have cooperated. I know I drone on from time to time about how everything has to go right to produce a good pot but it really does boil down to a perfect storm of temperament, clay and firing to end up with a pot that that is based on simplicity and has quite a story to share.

LOBED B&A

Preparing for my last firing, I threw several "sets" of bowls, as in two of each made to roughly match or pair up. A faceted set, a thick slipped set, an altered lip set and this pair that was lobed and stamped, all destined to fire in and around a group of planters that were ordered. This pair was made to match in terms of how they were thrown and altered with the impressed stamps being different on either bowl and I think this still constitutes matching at least in my book. Out of the bisque both were glazed in an Oribe style glaze with a thick application of iron to temper the surface and the results are rather clear. The surface is still transparent with every mark on the pot clearly showing which adds a greater dimension to the pieces and gives them a sense of movement which I like especially as they are perched high up on the angular cut feet. Luckily I put five sets in the kiln and got five sets out which is rather nice considering it doesn't always work that way, must have done everything right this time.

I would also like to take a moment and reflect on the great sacrifice that generations have made today on Memorial Day without whom our history would be quite different. May we always remember that the real price of freedom is in no way free.

INK & OXIDE

I am constantly on the lookout for good source materials regarding modern Japanese pottery from the post-war era to modern times; catalogues, magazines, brochures, books, all are welcome provided they fall within a range of potters, style and traditions that interest me. I recently received a very fine, Japanese bound catalogue from the late 60s on the potter Kawai Takeichi and as a bonus to all of the wonderful color illustrations there is a photo of his ink designs every couple of pages meant to compliment the oxide decoration on any given pot. Illustrated is a photo of one on Takeichi's classic which would have been placed on a molded plate form though the central elements of the decoration is also seen on more three dimensional pieces like jars and vases. There are a dozen of these ink design sketches, some next to the design on a ceramic piece but seeing design and pot together gives a sense of the careful and thoughtful consideration that a potter must give to skillfully blend form and surface decoration, a skill that Kawai Takeichi learned under the guidance of his master to which he put to the fullest and most eye pleasing manner.

P&A

I had this highly animated and well fired Iga chawan here a while back as part of a small collection I was helping sell for a fellow collector. Made by Atarashi Manabu (b.1973) this chawan has a fierce, hacked at surface of shifting planes and angles created by the potter and well complimented by a really good firing while maintaining a really good and inviting feel to both hand and eye. Atarashi Manabu studied with his father, veteran Iga potter Atarashi Kanji and he has gone on to build several anagama style kilns, the first one being in 2002. As you can see in this short slideshow video, the form and firing are simpatico and the lip and foot just go on to complete the piece in rather provocative manner. This was a really fun pot to have here and study and I hope the video gives the sense of what a lively and playful chawan this unique piece really is.

SIMPLE INLAY

Illustrated is a detail shot of some simple glaze inlay that I did on a series of small, square dessert plates recently. Each plate is approximately 8" x 8" and glazed in my temmoku with fine line inlay using the medieval green. what I like about this technique is that where the medieval green meets the temmoku, it has a soft, blurry effect creating iron tendrils that make their way into the light green decoration, it softens the overall appearance and makes for a natural look. The decoration itself is my basic "landscapeman" design that is only a bit wider than a pencil tip that is altered to look like cosmic or stellar intersections which I have mentioned before stems from an old Sci-Fi movie. Each small plate has the same basic theme but was decorated differently to complement each other which quite honestly made it easier on me and the eye as well.

C&C2

I handled a rather nice Seto-Guro recently that had a lot going for it; a nice surface, nice clay, nice form and very practical to use and hold but I kept thinking, it is just missing something. In the conversation with the chawan I couldn't help but be drawn back to a chawan a handled a few years back, a Seto-Guro chawan by Arakawa Toyozo where surface, form, kodai and presence all elevated the piece to a different level. The Arakawa as one might expect was potted excellently, the clay itself is just great but there is something about the bowl, the casual nature and honestly of the form, it appears to have been created without any contrived elements, in other words, from a lump of clay sprung the framework of a chawan. It is easy to say that the bowl embodies a no-fuss, no-muss attitude by Arakawa toiled on from his youth to his later years striving to create pottery that combined a certain naiveté with a practiced sense of subtle dynamics. I think as you look at what may a rather simple Seto-Guro chawan  it doesn't take a huge leap of the imagination to envision all the effort of a lifetime of dedication poured in to a single piece,  day by day, pot by pot.

I decided to put up this static photo of the Arakawa Toyozo chawan because admittedly the video of this piece I put up years ago isn't my best effort. I hope it gives more of a sense of the chawan than the video does. I should also mention the Seto-Guro chawan I was just handling is in fact a very nice bowl but there is a reason Arakawa is one of the greats.

"Where there is much light, the shadow is deep." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

FACETS FINITO

I just fired off the kiln and among the pots was the faceted tokkuri that I had up on my blog a while back. The finished piece came out pretty nice with a variegated surface created by the latest incarnation of an Oribe glaze I am working with but the highlights are around the shoulder and other horizontal cuts where the glaze collected. These particular areas have created deep, dark green pools of glass that in some respects, segment the form and establish areas that the eye darts to and with the changing angles and planes, the light plays off each surface differently. These tokkuri were enjoyable to make and made a good platform for a glaze that has quite a degree of potential with effects and textures that just keep adding to the lexicon of its possibilities.

"Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises."  Pedro Calderon de la Barca

A KNOCK ON THE DOOR

While working in the studio this morning loading a bisque there was a knock at the door, the Post person arrived with a box, pots had arrived. I knew these two pots were coming through an exchange of emails last week and the ever useful tracking info, I had planned accordingly so that I could photograph the pieces and get them up on Trocadero today.  The first pot is a Honami Koetsu utsushi of his famous Raku bowl, KAMIYA made by Sasaki Shoraku that is a neat piece to handle with an electric surface of gloss and depth. the second piece is a tsubo by Kato Kenji best known for his Persian blue pots but who is equally as well known for his vivid overglaze enamel platters and tsubo. The brushwork on the pot is just alive and fluid, just what one would hope for from this potter.

If you would like to see more pictures of these two pieces, please have a look over at my Trocadero marketplace;
https://www.trocadero.com/stores/albedo3studio/catalog/

GLACIAL GLAZING

Quite a while back I posted up a photo of an unpacked wood box with Khan trying his best to create some degree of mischief around the piece but as I had mentioned, the Kumano Kuroemon mizusashi was safe and sound on a high shelf. In the middle of searching out a particular group of photos I ran across this detail shot of the Kuma-Shino mizusashi in question and thought I would post this up, though a slideshow video will likely be put up at some point. I love this particular detail shot as it showcases a beautiful landscape of ash coated Shino as only Kumano could create through his intense and wonderfully orchestrated firings. The surface is luminescent looking like age old glacial ice with a crust of running ash at the center of the shot. There is something ancient about these surfaces as if they have been around for centuries, a presence that appears more like it evolved or coalesced rather than having been created by a lone potter with little more than some clay, wood and a fiery determination.  

D&D

Since all the way back while working at Cleveland State, I have used various incarnations of a dot and dash design and in this case in black and white slip trailing. In a legal folder somewhere, I have a small scrap piece of paper which is about 2" by 3" with this design sketched out and near the top corner are the letters, R-O-M. In all honestly I can not for the life of me remember where I saw this design but my suspicion is that it was on some ancient or old pot at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.  I realize that when I tore the little scrap of paper it could be coincidence that it says ROM on it but I am comfortable enough with saying that this must be the genesis for the design I now use. I really like slip trailing this design as it works well around most round forms and it is nice to set up a group of pots and just go on auto-pilot until the slip trail bottle runs dry and is in need of refilling. 

M.Q. THE VIDEO

After I made my post on Weds. I went back to the file of the Kato Hajime photos and was inspired to put together the slideshow video of the chawan much sooner than I had anticipated. I selected a group of photos that I hope captures how the bowl looks in person but also what it says, its presence. This is a hardy, fairly large chawan that captures a distinct moment in time that really has a lot to say, a conversation regarding the work of a potter, a tradition, a visual narrative of a time and place and last but not least about what it means to be a chawan. I have most probably said to much already but just want to call attention to the finger prints of Kato surrounding the kodai, forever frozen in a moment and adding to the memory of one of the giants of the 20th century. Enjoy the slideshow.

"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence."  Vince Lombardi

M.Q.

Though Kato Hajime (1900-1968) was a Ningen Kokuho for his brilliant Iro-e work, there was very little in the way of both traditional and non-traditional ceramics that he didn't attempt and master. Kato turned his hand to a wide array of pottery making which included works in Karatsu, Bizen, Shino, Oribe, Shigaraki, Kohiki, Kinsai, Seiji/ Seihakuji, Jun and on and on, and in each style his genius shown through. Illustrated is what appears to be a simple Shino chawan but having handled it I can attest it is much more than that, the bowl is alive, it has a rhythm and posture that animates the bowl while keeping it firmly within the functional realm of chanoyu. The surface creates a wandering landscape narrative that forces the eye to dart here and there to drink in the entirety of form and the varieties in color has a wonderful blend of the subtle and vivid, with further study in hand, it is clear this is no ordinary chawan, dare I say museum quality? As you can see this Shino chawan was illustrated in  a catalogue (1974) for a museum show showcasing the works of Kato Hajime which traveled through Japan and of the 166 pieces, this chawan was the only Shino piece exhibited. Though I truly believe the use of museum quality is well over used, in just some cases, perhaps this one among very few, the description might just fit the pot, at any rate, it was a very pleasing bowl to handle and study. The vivid feldspar landscape that circles the bowl will be very hard to forget despite that fact I took a lot of pictures of this chawan and will put together a slideshow video at some point in the future.