Wednesday, July 22, 2020

EAST-WEST


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.