Many
years back when my wife and I would travel back and forth between Upstate NY
and Cleveland we used to stop in Victor, NY home of the East-West shop run by
the late print dealer and author, Merlin Dailey. Besides having a stunning
array of prints including by Sasajima Kihei and Kosaka Gajin, two of our
favorites, Merlin had a nice selection of mostly mingei oriented pottery
including the works of Funaki Michitada and his son, Kenji. Though they were
pricey we were afforded the opportunity to handle quite a few pieces with new
ones added (and subtracted) on each new visit. Though we did eventually buy a
Funaki Michitada piece there was a long, slipware o-sara platter with the most
evocative but economical design which had just arrived from Japan and well out
of our budget.
The
illustrated platter jpeg has been on the hard drive for some time now and
thought it was certainly worth sharing. Made by Funaki Kenji, this piece is
very similar to the piece that we used to visit. As I said, there is a
seductive quality to the simple slip decoration which brings to piece to life.
Filled with movement I think this o-sara is classic mingei pottery, devoid of
any trappings or traces of the superfluous trappings of modernity ever careful
to keep any aesthetic decisions from interfering with function. I really do
wonder where that wonderful platter went and I can think of more than a few
functions it could perform if only it were here and taking up space on the mantle
would be first and foremost among them.
.JPG)