OMIYAGE (?)

Illustrated is a rather well fired Shigaraki chaire by veteran potter, Okano Hosei (b.1937). The chaire looks like it is right out of the feudal past and the volume of the piece is quite easy to imagine clothed in an all natural ash surface like a tailored suit.  The battle between clay and fire is well on display as varying ash effects compete to depict the fierce interaction with beautiful areas of a brown tinged bidoro running down the face adding a hint of verticality to the pot. This chaire is rather classic and even typical of the vocabulary of surfaces that are seen on Okano's pottery show casing an experienced sensitivity of the demands of the form and where they are to be placed in the kiln gleaned from decades of experience. On a side note in1982 a piece by Okano Hosei was gifted from then prime Minister Nakasone to visiting President Ronald Regan and then again an Okano "souvenir" (omiyage?) was  given to visiting Mikal Gorbachev in 1993. I guess there could be far worse gifts than a nice little gem like this medieval chaire, I usually get socks.