FROM THERE TO HERE

Unless I am mistaken, I think that when most people think about the works of Sakai Kobu what immediately springs to mind is his translucent, wet and ethereal Kobu-Shino glaze that he is now best known for. Like most potters though, Sakai started out as a Mino potter who made works in two distinct styles of traditionally oriented Shino glazes; one was like most of his contemporaries and the other  a drier, stiffer surface that is still obviously Shino but has shed the fat and creamy qualities that many have been in pursuit of. As you can see in the illustration, the basics are the same, the buff clay body is covered in a thin iron slip over which this drier Shino glaze is applied and once fired there is a crispness to the design yet the surface is still readily identifiable as Shino-yaki.

I like this surface and actually find there are corollaries with his best known Kobu-Shino; there is a quietness to these pieces yet they have quite a bit to say in a contemplative fashion where there are no bells and whistles only the bare essentials of a narrative in three dimensions. I am fond of the Kobu-Shino pots and always welcome the opportunity to handle and study them when the chance arrives but I suspect without this drier, more traditional glaze variant and all the others that he worked through it is unlikely that what he is best known for would have ever been created, potters and their pots generally evolve in a mostly linear pathway, from there to here. More to follow as I get around to building a video slideshow of this Shino mizusashi.