SOULMATES?

I recently had this Nishiura Takeshi Echizen tokkuri here before send it on its international journey to finally be connected with a long, lost soulmate. Just waiting to be filled this Nishiura guinomi makes a great companion to the tokkuri with surfaces that show off Echizen wood firing in quite a good light. despite the fact that the internet has draw everything much closer together, like a huge electronic Pangaea, putting together sets from disparate locations has become the norm provided you can find the pieces in the first place. Though obviously both originated in Echizen, Japan, the tokkuri has taken a more circuitous route to the new owner than has the guinomi which came from potter, to gallery and then on to its new home.

The tokkuri's path is a bit more nebulous though it did travel about Japan before coming through a number of US States before it arrived in my hands and then on to presumably the last leg of its international journey. I realize these details regarding the travels and stopovers are of little or no consequence to most but I find the migratory patterns of pottery to be quite interesting as well as the motivations behind the push to get these pottery objects to move along in the first place. The current owner of the tokkuri had an interesting phrase, "catch and release" for pots and collectors who own pieces for a time and then pass them along to their new homes. The one point that I can interject regarding "catch and release" is that as both potter and collector having the ability to see and study a far reaching and ever changing group of pieces is always an enjoyable experience and it saves just a bit on airfare and rail passes to Japan.

Photo courtesy of a collector abroad.