Illustrated
is a vivid gosu tabi-chawan with a classic floral motif decorated on the front
and back of the bowl by Kawai Takeichi. Besides being a rather nice piece and
certainly a quintessential Takeichi pot, this particular piece has an
interesting, at least to my wife and I, back story. This piece is the first
Japanese pot we bought off the internet in 1998, a piece we spotted on a
Japanese website and decided to try emailing the dealer with what seemed like
no success at the time. The email I sent to this dealer was in English with a
few cobbled together Japanese written phrases but hours turned to days which in
turn grew into months. Then one day, out of the blue and almost three months
after our email inquiry we received an invoice email from the dealer for under
$90 shipped at the time we were instructed to pay using an International Postal
Money Order (IPMO) which we had to track down and order at our local Post
Office. After a week we received the IPMO, mailed it off to the dealer in Japan and about six
days later we received an email from the dealer letting us know the pot was
shipped by EMS and here was the tracking info. It was obvious that the dealer
had used some sort of translation program as the English was not great though
far better than my Japanese and here is what really stuck out from the email,
it ended with this cryptic phrase and I quote; "never push an
alligator" as did nearly all of his emails for the next several years. You
always tend to remember those firsts but I will admit, I doubt I will ever forget
that phrase and will forever wonder, what exactly does it mean, I am hoping it
was intended as some sage advice or practical wisdom as I can image the outcome
involving said alligator being somewhat less than positive.
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