ANOTHER ECHIZEN TOKKURI

Illustrated is another Echizen tokkuri  a classic yuteki-temmoku piece shrouded in shadow and basking in bright sunlight perhaps bearing a classic Chinese glaze surface while being distinctly Japanese in origin and purpose. This sunlit tokkuri was made by Echizen potter, Sasaki Yuzuru, pupil of Kimura Morikazu who specializes in iron glazes of a wide variety including the oilspot technique with a yellow background that I have posted up previously on my blog. This yuteki temmoku tokkuri is stout and solid with a friendly demeanor and a rather utilitarian form including the neck and mouth that make it easy to grasp and pour from. As for the surface, the background is a dark, almost intense bluish black covered over in varying size spots that are like small rings or halos within even more composed of several colors and looking a bit like electrons circling the nucleus of some as yet unidentified atom. What I end up taking away from seeing a number of pots by Sasaki Yuzuru may sound cliché but form really does follow function in totality and the surface is never a secondary consideration from the moment he puts the clay on the wheel.