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.