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.