SUNSHINE ON MY SHOULDER

Seemingly basking in the sunlight this vase is one that I had taken photos of some time back and only recently revisited them to build a slideshow video. While originally photographing the pot, I must have snapped a photo of the piece in sunlight and found it in the folder with the rest of the images. This photo gives a whole different  perspective of the interaction between clay, Shino, iron, ash with a cameo by the Sun making for a rather intense look in to the nature of not only the mallet vase but the qualities, varying effects and subtleties of the surface. What I really like about this pot is that at its core it mimics a functional object, the wood mallet and in doing so, blanketed in its own, unique wood grain of sorts, it has become a distinct functional object standing on its own. Through the process of using not only the original clay archetypes, it relies on the weathered and well used wooden origins of which it is quite easy to see in this form even through the earthy, honest surface.

Made by Mino potter, Nakajima Ichiyo (b.1949) of the Ikko-gama in Toki City, his pottery is a mixture of purely functional works, chadogu and pots that push the boundaries of his Momoyama influences. Much of Nakajima's work revolves around Oribe, Shino, Seto-Guro and Ki-Seto of which this Shino mallet vase is a good example in which the potter has skillfully navigated the use of a variety of materials to create a piece that goes well beyond the norm. With the sunshine on the shoulder of the pot a vivid picture is painted of what is possible with a handful of clay, materials, fire and perhaps just a bit of serendipity sprinkled in for good measure.