SILVER & GOLD

What is silver on the outside and gold on the inside, well based on the chawan illustration the answer could in fact be a Banura Shiro chawan. Perhaps it has something to do with growing up with a lacquer artist for a father but this kuro-chawan has silver and gold applied in a manner that is vaguely reminiscent of rubbed negoro or even kanshitsu style lacquer though modified and adapted stylishly to his work. Banura who worked in Iga is well known for his graphic painted pottery which as you think about it many of these pieces seem to spring from lacquer designs applied to simple yet evocative three dimensional forms. This particular chawan reminds me of an Edo period creation going beyond the ordinary chadogu expectations and combining a rugged and purposeful form and glaze with just the right degree of luxury and aristocratic nobility. As you can see in this short video slideshow the silver and gold are not overly bright or thickly applied striking a balance between too much and just the right amount and as you reflect on the work of Banura Shiro you will recognize that he had made a career out of doing just that. Enjoy the slideshow. 

LEFT OVERS

Over time, there always seems to be some pots that just don't end up getting in either the bisque or glaze firings and sometimes both. My last terra cotta bisque/glaze firing ended up being a group of mismatched left overs from slipware to tebori that truth be told didn't make for a very good fit in an effort to use as much space in the kiln as possible and the oldest piece may have dated back to March.  This medium size terra cotta tebori tray form is just one such example and when I took this photo the bulk of the carving had been completed but the few finer details for the birds had not been finished yet. I usually wait until the clay is almost bone dry to add sgraffito decoration with a sharpened pin tool. Though not exactly like the Island of Misfit Toys, I will have to make specific pieces in the coming months to fit with these recently firing pot to keep them from seeming like they are oddballs and one-offs. Maybe 2021 should be the year where I do a better job planning out the firings so that these poor forgotten pots just don't sit around and collect dust.

SEASON'S GREETINGS!

I wanted to wish everyone Season's Greetings, Happy Holidays, a very happy new year and the annual airing of the grievances during the Festivus for the rest of Us. We are also hoping that 2021 is "a far, far better year than has ever come before". Chocolate holiday truffles accompanying a shinsha mizusashi by Nakajima Hitoshi which seems festive enough in my book.

GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST

Illustrated is a plate, a ghost of Christmas past as it were and a piece we use from time to time, though carefully especially around various Holidays. This was a gift from my wife back in the earliest days of the internet, purchased from Robert Yellin close to when he first appeared on Trocadero, a virtual marketplace. Mindy picked this piece for me for two reasons, first off look at the clear emerald ash glaze across the surface which accentuates the vivid texture, the second reason which pools here and there and in the crevices of the clay. The box is simply signed HAIYU HACHI, YOSHIAKI  (SHUMEI) and always makes the contents of the piece look just a bit nicer than they appear. Despite the texture this ash glazed plate is rather practical, a good size for two people, easy to use and as the covered surface peeks out from whatever it may hold, it just makes the whole experience that much more satisfying especially when it involves smoked salmon, dill mayonnaise, capers and thinly sliced onion.

ECB TS8

This faceted on the wheel teabowl was yet another piece made out of an experimental clay body that I was messing about with, this was the last piece from the batch. This bowl was thrown and quickly faceted using a sharp splinter of fire wood that was hanging around and has served as a rather useful if impromptu clay tool. Though this looks quite brown in the left photo, it is a greener tone in natural light (as seen on the right) and all the grog inclusions and shelves caused by the quick faceting add quite a bit to the surface making for a much more animated and interesting visual. I ran out of this clay rather quickly throwing teabowls and a couple of small covered pieces once the test cups came out of the glaze kiln and need to get motivated to make up more of this clay body which will end up with the ominous sounding designation; ECB TS8.

ONI-SHINO REVEAL

If I had known that this recent storm was going to affect our area as much as it has I would have asked the sender of this pot to hang on just a couple more days. Though I had seen a couple of so-so photos (sorry B.) I was waiting for the Oni-Shino reveal as I was aware it was also packed in its own blue suit. As fate would have it, it arrived safe and sound and this is the first photo of the piece that I have taken besides those of the outside box and interior packing. All decked out in its very own custom shifuku, this Oni-Shino vase clearly announces its surface of thick, crackled feldspar Shino with areas of iron pouring out small gaps all coated in a thin sheen of natural wood ash for the intense firing. There is no mistaking the works of Tsukigata Nahiko from those influenced by his pottery in his own day well into the 21st century. As the saying goes, often imitated but rarely duplicated I am constantly amazed that the combination of simple feldspar, iron and natural wood ash make for such a unique and idiosyncratic surface in the hands of Tsukigata which seemingly can not be truly duplicated. Adding to the fine coat of green ash is a nice ring of crustier ash around the mouth and a bit more for good measure of the face of the piece. The pot, like the cat is of course now out of the bag as it were and fully photographed and I will post an overall photo of this rather unique hanaire at some point in the near future.

AKA-CHAWAN

I had this "AKA-CHAWAN" pass through here on its way to its new home a while back and honestly I rarely pass up the opportunity to handle the work of Konishi Heinai II if I can help it. Konishi is equally adept at making Raku style pottery and Iga-yaki and despite the box simply reading, red chawan this is very much Raku style pottery. I really admire the large tapering, vertical form with wonderfully tactile spatula work with a surface that is occasionally punctuated by black carburized spots making their way through the glaze all the while perched on a small yet stable kodai. Though the bowl has a well worked form and surface there is just enough curve and texture to make for a rather seductive chawan that infuses certain elements from the work of Koetsu and Chojiro while like a great chef, folding in the right characteristics and nuances of the modern age in which this bowl was produced. I won't go so far as to say this is a perfect Raku chawan but I'll let the viewer decide how far to go in the admiration of Konishi's Raku creations.

SPILLWAYS

Here is a quite detail shot of a recent impasto slip style teabowl glazed up in Oribe, iron and a quiet sheen of black glaze. The diagonal channels make for excellent spillways on each plain of this squared up bowl adding a nice sense of movement to the piece as well as a great deal of visual and dimensional texture. I have to admit, I like not knowing exactly what the results will be using this three glaze combo with the latest Oribe as the base to work from; various shades of green, amber, brown and black droozy areas crop up along with these ashy looking trails with trails of various colors within them as well. Now I do realize this is in no way rocket science but I like the alchemy feel to the process where the amounts and combinations change as much with a puff of breath* as they do with anything else. (* I am using an atomizer as a spray gun to apply the two or three overglazes.)

HAGOROMO GUINOMI

I have had this short video slideshow on the hard drive for some time and thought it was as good a day as any to put it up on Youtube and my blog. This yuteki style, partridge feather guinomi was made by veteran iron glaze specialist Kimura Morikazu and shows off just one of the myriad of styles and surfaces that he mastered along his long career which started out in Kyoto before he moved off to Echizen. This nice yuteki-temmoku guinomi has a nice array of features and effects that creates a rich tapestry to enjoy and bringing to mind the hagoromo, the feathered cloak. I hope this slideshow as short as it is helps fill in the blanks of the form, surface and subtleties of this guinomi by Kimura Morikazu and is the next best thing to having in hand.

TRANSPACIFIC VOYAGE

Given the current state of affairs and the dramatic increase in getting pots from Japan to the US I had decided early on to try my hand at getting a pot or pots shipped by surface, seamail, a practice I have been using for printed materials for quite some time. Illustrated is the very first attempt at doing so which arrived after what seemed like an eternity but in absolutely great shape from pot, wood box and even the other cardboard box. Granted this was packed rather well but I gave the odds for at about 25% which was oddly enough how this pot was picked as a $10 plus $26 Japan Post seamail bill and when it arrived I was quite pleased all things considered.

This haikaburi Shigaraki uzukumaru tsubo which is just a little over 9" tall was made by Shimizu Hiroyuki and shows off a pleasing enough form with a rather nice firing with a rather active surface which give the pot that spark that catches the eye. During the firing the pot apparently fused to a shelf and when removed a small area came off the pot which was then filled and decorated in gold which adds a rather old, medieval feel to the pot. I really enjoy the directional ash caused by the velocity (and ferocity) of the firing which triggers the imagination to think of Ando Hiroshige's "Sudden Shower" woodblock print. Perhaps another intriguing feature of this pot is that the signed box also has a painted image (see inset) of the vase in use which adds a certain amount of appeal to the package. All in all this was an excellent test subject for the ardors of Transpacific voyage and low cost method of shipping for pieces that it would seem can not only make the journey but are worth the wait.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE

A recent email exchange came at precisely the right moment a short while back with two extra (?) squared teabowls sitting ready to be tooled and addressed one way or another. The conversation moved me to decorate the bowls both with segmented planes in which the stoneware had the kanji MU incised through to the clay and the porcelain one would have red overglaze enamel painted after the piece was glaze fired. This particular video slideshow follows the inspiration and progression of the stoneware bowl from thrown and incised, black slip segments applied, clear glazed and the finished piece. As you can see, there is "nothing (MU) to see here" across the segments around the teabowl alternating with the dark black areas and at the end of the day, this was enjoyable to document and make. Thanks for nothing! 

OSC

The box of this chawan clearly and succinctly reads; ONI-SHINO CHAWAN and though not totally alien to this potter, this style is a bit less well known than his various Shino, Oribe and haiyu glazed pots. The potter is Hayashi Shotaro and what normally springs to mind is the thickly glazed Shino pots of various incarnations from pure white, crimson reds to blue based feldspar surface and let's not forget the soft and evocative pastels of his rich Manyosai haiyu glazes. This Oni-Shino chawan shows vivid areas of semi-translucent crackle Shino with rich areas of iron effervescing through to the surface creating a scene out of some icy world envisioned only in our minds all layered and painted on to a canvas that has seductive curves and a posture defined with strength and functional determination.

Though in no way an anomaly I think I am attracted to this chawan and surface because there is a uniqueness to it, it fits well within Hayashi Shotaro's body of work while being obviously different than the bulk of his Shino chawan like one of those teachable moments for days gone by where "one of these things is not like the other". I will admit, I am drawn to the eccentric, the outsiders, those that walk a distinctly different path and it is easy to see where this Oni-Shino chawan is certainly not like the others.

GDD

I remember when Ishii Takahiro first burst on the scene having spent his apprenticeship with Kakurezaki Ryuichi, Ishii's palette was diverse but for me this Oribe, this vivid glaze caught my eye. As you can see in the picture there is a clarity and boldness to Ishii Takahiro's work, the Oribe glaze itself is bold and unapologetic as it interacts with the texture and color of the bare clay that has these wonderful orange flashed boundaries between clay and glaze. There is also a boldness to the form, just outside of the norm but well within the concept of the pot and its function for tea ceremony and beyond. The pot is accentuated by the expanded foot and lip where the creative, asymmetrical lid sits inadvertently decorated by wad scars and the crisp geometry of the knob and lugs all which showcase thick blue-green glaze or the gravity defying drip (gdd) atop the spire of the piece. I think that though it would be easy to say this is a simple pot with modern overtures the truth is that the decisions made and there are many to produce such a pot are quite a bit more complex than meets the eye though should we expect anything less from someone who lived, studied, learned and worked alongside one of Bizen's great modern masters? I just don't think so.