TWICE ENCOUNTERED

I first encountered this chawan quite a few years back, perhaps the very early 90s at the home of Dr. Fred Baekeland where it was part of about 20 pieces that he had pulled out for us to look at and possibly buy. Since Shino was one of our first true loves, when we left we ended up with a slide and Polaroid of the chawan and thought about it on and off for some time but never seemed to be at the right place and time to acquire it. Fast forward to the burgeoning age of the internet and a  second chance encounter with the very same chawan almost a decade later and astronomically less expensive, needless to say that we purchased it. I should say that Dr. Baekeland's original stamp of approval certainly helped and what we knew at the time that it was purchased out of an exhibition in Gifu the same year that we say it so it really didn't take a lot of convincing to bid.

Made by Mino traditional potter, Kawai Takehiko (b.1940) this chawan is a simple exercise in putting together a Momoyama ideal with a fresh and honest dose of a potter's vision where the straight sided form is interrupted by vivid and animated throwing lines that is a perfect foil for its glaze texture and coloration.  Though not a chawan you may classify as adventurous or necessarily breaking from tradition, this bowl has that sense of being a distillation of all the invaluable and difficult work of the 20th century pioneers that brought Shino back to its rightful place in the hierarchy of chadogu and modern pottery in general. Big, bold, practical and functional best describe this chawan in hand where despite its simplicity or perhaps because of it, this piece sits well in the hand and with the eye, it is so pleasing because it doesn't try too hard and gets all the fundamentals just about right and I think that is about all you can ask for out of two pounds of clay, a few ounces of glaze materials and a few thousand degrees of temperature.

THE BRIGHT SIDE(?)

This was another day with a late start for a variety of reasons but I did get to the studio and better late than never. After throwing some covered serving bowls and a few vase forms I turned my attention to a group of pitchers which was intended for three and three only. The first three were basically straight sided jugs with slightly flared feet and mouths which went well and I decided to make one more pitcher and went with a slightly different form as you can see in the photo. Thrown in about 4.5 lbs of stoneware the pitcher is under 14" tall with a bit of curve to the belly and a mouth flares out just a bit. Once I was done with this jug, I took turns pulling out the clay and making a spout for each piece, once they dry a bit I will take my sponge and soften the edges all around to get a more satisfying and clean look that will also be less likely to chip off after the pot is glaze fired. The final step will be to tool the foot and then pull a handle off the pot. I got another slow start but better to get something done than sit around and think about what I need to get done. I am told by someone who knows a lot more than me that this is looking on the bright side of life.

ONE, THAN TWO

I can't help but be reminded by a somewhat animated form straight out of ALICE IN WONDERLAND as I look at this highly Yuteki-Temmoku Koro by Fukumori Morihiko. As is clear to see in the photo all of the ridges and lines make excellent use of how this glaze works on pottery with all of the dark areas counterbalanced by the coppery, shadowy visual texture on all of the highpoints and edges that help make up this form. Though it may be a bit hard to see in this photo, each oilspot cell is filled with the same coppery nucleus that roves around the edges of the piece tying the form together and at the same time keeping the various elements of the form distinctly defined and contained.

I had my first encounter with Fukumori's work back in the early 90s where a dealer in Kyoto had a number of his wonderful guinomi and tokkuri as well as a few koro and chawan, a single mizusashi and two or three (?) vases. Perhaps in total we handled about 25 pieces and the hook was sunk as it were. On that day we bought two guinomi both of which disappeared out of our luggage on the way home but by sheer happenstance a Japanese dealer offered us a gourd form vase just after we returned home so we had our first piece and have not looked back. This koro was our anniversary gift to each other two years ago and little did we know that only one week later we would find another koro on the ubiquitous auction website for a price that was and is quite easy to live with. Hopefully I can get around to making a few slideshow videos of the two koro at some point in the future.

UNINTENDED MOTION

I find this Shigaraki mizusashi rather easy to like, the feel is old, antique and simple in execution as if it was part of a great number of the same style made over many years by a potter which in reality is most likely the truth. Made by Ogawa Seiho, this humble and practical mizusashi has a wonderful stone like form with a surface that does justice to the bones of the pot, a narrative that circles the piece with an array of effects from dry ash to a fine tsuchi-aji resembling an ancient emaki-mono in three dimensions. Though solid and seemingly sedentary the simple mark made by the pot creates a slight amount of movement  in the same way drawing a circle in a pond may yield unintended motion. Contemplative and rich in visual value it is quite easy to see this pot in use during tea ceremony possessing a calming and unifying spirit that many pots strive for and far fewer achieve.  

TOTS

I got a late start today as we finally were able to get our first vaccine with the second coming in just over a month and we are glad to get this started. After traveling to Utica a quick stop at the grocery store and PO totally wiped out the morning. I finally got back to some pots that I threw on Friday and covered up really well and it was back to work.    

There is no arguing that this is a simple design but someone had to do it and I suspect the time of the season factored in just a bit. Combining black slip, sgraffito and white slip trailed accents, this snowberry design really is simple but works nicely on my terra cotta pieces and seems to adapt well to a wide variety of forms and sizes. Admittedly this is a bit time consuming as well as having to work at varying times to get the three techniques worked out with the final process having to come in just under the wire otherwise the white dots pop off in the bisque. Okay, it's not rocket science but  despite the time it takes there is something always oddly satisfying about working in sequence, perhaps  eight teabowls, eight  three pound v-bowls and four smaller covered serving bowls will do the trick. Not a lot of work for one day unless it is Friday but just the right amount to pass the day spent listening to a thumb-drive filled with a hundred hours of 80s tunes.

DEVIL MAY CARE (SHINO)

I don't know a lot about the potter Kido Sadaaki (b. 1941) other than he fires in Shigaraki and just outside of Osaka in Daito City and that he started making pots later in life in the 1990s. Kido left a regular business job to pursue pottery and immediately honed in on first Shino-yaki and then Shigaraki pottery with there being a bit of overlap as you can see in this photo. This particular chawan was first glazed and then placed in a wood kiln where it would appear to have been toward the front of the kiln (perhaps 1/3 of the way back) where it received a fair amount of ash creating this vivid and tumultuous surface where feldspar and ash painted a very clear narrative across the surface. Where the thinker crusty or running ash didn't take hold, the white Shino is coated in a thin and glistening layer of green, glassy ash that adds a luminescent quality to the bowl. In many respects, like the works of Tsukigata Nahiko and Kumano Kuroemon, Kido fires his kiln(s) in a way to maximize its ferocity and imbue the Shino surface with qualities that are normally reserved for wood kiln firings at rather intense heat. I think that given the rather unique glazing and firing of Kido Sadaaki what he may lack in natural affinity for clay he more than makes up for in bravado and his devil may care approach to just getting the work made and fired and there is certainly something to be said about embarking on a long journey one step at a time especially if it is in double-time.

RUBBED & DUSTED

I have to admit when I first saw the mark on this pot and the box hakogaki I had to take a second look. Though the box clearly identifies the angular and stylized henko as temmoku, I think I was still expecting a kannyu style seiji pot to emerge from within. This crisp and well modeled henko which was fired in a noborigama was made by seiji specialist Watanabe Akihiko at some point in the 1990s and clear shows a highly meticulous craftsman and a master of glazing which is written all over this pot. Defined as kiln change temmoku, this wonderful glaze is a dark brown or greenish surface depending on the light and the surface is literally alive with shimmering tea dust style effects that sparkle in the sunlight as seen here and which reminds me of a lacquer artist who got a little overly enthusiastic with the maki-e in an attempt to portray some distant far off galaxy. 

The boundaries of the piece are clearly defined in a brilliant tessha style iron where presumably the potter thinned the glaze by rubbing it a bit on the high points to achieve this effect that is sheer perfection on the henko, a detail that separates this pot from any near competitors. This henko has a great size and the geometry of the pot presents a strong, stable and formal presentation that truly is a contrast to the lush, curvy forms blanketed in seiji glazes that Watanabe is perhaps best known for today though at their core of striving for perfection and surface based on iron, both styles obviously spring from the same dedicated spirit.

DECISIONS TO BE MADE

I have a decision to make, this covered serving bowl is at the exact stage to either slip it or flip it and wait for other decorating options. This is not usually such a conundrum but in this case, I made five of these forms and lids and slipped and carved two, B&W slipped one, left one for abstrakt resist which brings me to this one. These were actually thrown last week, tooled, the majority dealt with and this one was wrapped up real well until today when it was go time and in the end I black slipped the piece and carved an old rhythm design around the lid and base. It doesn't seem like much but trying to make a decision without any guidelines like a specific order makes it really easy to muck up a pot, like that last handful of pots to glaze when you are tired and just want things done, that is when you can fall back on tried and true of things go very wrong. With terra cotta running a bit low I am all about maximizing my output and doing everything I can to nudge things in the way of a good (and harmonious) outcome so tried and true it is, well was.          

"All our real decisions are made in a state of mind that is not going to last." Marcel Proust

STAMP OF APPROVAL

I recently received this Ko-Iga style chawan by Kojima Kenji from the same collector that the last two chawan by the same potter came from. This kutsu-gata chawan is a bit more rugged than the last two with the face a bit scorched by the ash and flame that then wraps around the body of the piece to embrace the rear. The reverse is highlighted by ash drips, an old Iga style impressed decorative device and three rather nice shell imprinted scars showing how the chawan was oriented in the kiln during the intense firing. There is a rather pleasant sense of movement in the form obviously aided by the undulation of the lip and the way in which the ash moved before being frozen in that moment where the kiln reached its crescendo of temperature before starting to cool. This appearance may be medieval but you can see Kojima Kenji's hands all over this chawan which like most of his other bowls, there is a stoic pragmatism to the pot that gives way to enjoyment of form, texture, posture, balance and even color. You can see a few more photos of this chawan over at my Trocadero marketplace;

https://www.trocadero.com/stores/albedo3studio/items/1441706/EXHIBITED-KO-IGA-CHAWAN-BY-KOJIMA-KENJI

MOMENTO TEMPORIS

I found this chawan on the ubiquitous auction site a while back and despite being an older example I liked the pot and the variety of surface activity that it displays. Made by Kon Chiharu back in the mid-1990s, this pot was made in Niigata but is clearly Shigaraki in design with a generous coating of ash on the face and on the interior back wall as well as running ash moving what appears to be horizontal in nature due to the way the pot was fired. I like the movement of the surface which animates the bowl form and the addition of the shell scars and foot perpetually wet from the ash help create a bowl that has something to look at with every turn of the bowl despite its age. I put together this quick video slideshow to help fill in the blanks and give a full picture of what the bowl is like in hand, hope it does just that.

JUST THROWN

Straight forward terra cotta teapot decorated in abstrakt resist with a deep black and vivid coloration surrounding the surface leaving the handle, gallery, lid and base to frame the pot. I like making simple teapots, just the body of the piece, a lid, a spout and a pulled medieval style round handle assembled without much fuss to give you a rather easy to use, practical pot. Though I do drink tea it really was my time working around Bill Klock that cemented my interest in teapots as while working he would stop and make tea the English way which always, always included a handmade teapot by him, students or other potters he knew. If that wasn't quite enough there were the classic teapots that Warren MacKenzie made and the sleek thrown and altered ones by Jeff Oestriech that gave me at the very least a foundation from which to work. It may be these particular times but though I have made all kinds of teapots from hardly functional, thrown and altered and hand built moving in to a new cycle of just plain thrown and assembled teapots can really satisfy the soul.

SOME OLD POT

We actually had a fair amount of sunshine today, something in short supply through the frigid months of January and February giving way to the march thaw. What surprised me was that the sun was pouring through the windows and illuminating this old Bizen tsubo that we have on the floor which Khan and Jun before him loves to rub up against while walking the perimeter of the room. I know I have photos of this old, feudal jar somewhere but didn't want to miss the opportunity to take a few shots of it bathed in the rays of the sun and here is just one of the pictures. The jar has a rather nice presence and scale and is about 60% covered in ash from the wood firing process with the rear being that reddish to almost purple flashing, fire color that makes for a well dressed pot. As you can see the lip is rather sturdy and strong in its construction and like the shoulder, both are impressed with various decorative devices all the way around which makes it just a tiny bit different than the rest of the old, Edo to Meiji period Bizen pottery that I am familiar with. 

 We found this pot in the window of an antique store on one of the antique streets in Cleveland that we explored on our second day of officially living in Cleveland. Initially the pot didn't have a price but after a couple of visits we agreed on a ridiculously fair price (for us) and it spent its time in Cleveland on the landing of our stairway to our apartment until it found its way to various houses in Cleveland, NH, CT, PA, VA and now in central NY though sans baggage labels. The one constant that has remained is that first Jun and now Khan both liked the jar as both a place for a solo rub down and as less than stealthy vantage point to sit on; at least we are all in agreement that we enjoy having this tsubo around for various reasons even if it is just some old pot.

TIME TRAVEL

I was looking at a pot recently and as I was enthralled with the exterior, I noticed this singular, solitary green drip and on a whim stuck my phone upside down into the pot and took this photo, of course I asked permission first. The result is this perfect bidoro droplet, an emerald created by ash and the intense heat inside an anagama perhaps 30 years ago but still as fresh, wet and gravity defying as the day it came out of the kiln. I was reminded about looking for glimpses of beauty where ever they may be and those simple moments of pleasure as they sometimes crash in to you like this chance encounter with simplest of details that can immediately transport you to another time and place. Maybe Einstein was wrong about time travel and the proof is in this diminutive time machine. 

Looking just like dripping ice, surrounded by still pristine snow, ash built up around the shoulders and mouth of this Shino mizusashi and in just this one spot, the ash made its way to the edge of the lip where it is now sentenced to hang for whatever percentage of eternity this ceramic vessel may have. If you look carefully at the right side of the photo you can see the slight channel, stained with a hint of brown ash where the ash made its way to the underside of the lip and dripped into the interior during the height of the firing also creating a large, deep green pool on the floor of the interior but this one detail was my focus though there are always more details to share down the line including a slideshow video at some point. There are way too many details, pictures and projects but fingers crossed, I should get to some of them at some place in time and maybe this time machine will lend a hand. 

"Why hurry over beautiful things? Why not linger and enjoy them?" Clara Schumann

BACK TO BASICS

I think of this particular glazing technique as going back to the basics and perhaps at the end of the day everything leads us back to that point whether it is apparent or not. It certainly doesn't have to be this glaze combination but it is rather simple, calming and effective by using two glazes and wax resist the form is accentuated by this simple decoration. Using temmoku and medieval green, the surface works perfectly with a wide array of thrown round forms and the geometry can be quite striking especially in bright sunlight. I have to admit that as I keep trying to fully understand altering and faceting pots going back to this basic, simply thrown, simply tooled and simply glazed work is like a calm in the middle of a storm and given these rather unsettling times who doesn't need a few minutes of uninterrupted peace and quiet for the mind?