IRON UNDER GLASS

Thrown and then manipulated and even pinched, this buffware chawan was made by perhaps my favorite Fudo painter, Sato Katsuhiko. As I mentioned the bowl is made of a off white, buff stoneware and then calligraphy was brushed around the surface using a rusty iron wash which has areas of semi-translucent to opaque qualities that brings the eye round and round the bowl. Before firing the teabowl was glazed in a thin clear glaze that accentuates both the clay and decoration which makes for a rather appealing overall presentation like iron floating under a thin layer of glass.  Living and working in Nara Prefecture, Sato Katsuhiko began learning pottery making under Tsujimura Shiro in 1974 and over the years he has created a wide array of works and styles from Bizen style wood fired pots to painted overglaze enamel pottery, sometsuke ware and many others including this shoga style chawan. Though I don't exactly consider Sato a great potter it is rather clear that he gets his message across in the works that he throws himself as is the case with this chawan, for some of the other heavy lifting he has had more accomplished potters step in and create pots that where clay act as his canvas for ideas that flow out of two dimensions and sometimes in to three. I know I have used the Clint Eastwood quote before but it is true that "a man has to know his limitations" and in this case, it is possible that Sato Katsuhiko may have exceeded them.