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.
.JPG)