BALANCE

Looking like violently created rock strata surrounding a moving stream, this Oribe futamono, covered box is a lesson in imaginary landscapes and vivid texture. Having some elements to older Rimpa decoration, the texture plays a key roll in articulating this form as well as inviting the eye from side to side and top to bottom of this pot which at its core is a simple box, simply executed but the potter has whipped up the surface in to a turbulent and frenzied vision with areas of placid calm to balance the landscape out into a harmonious vision.    

This Oribe covered box form was made by Kato Kuniya (b.1940)  who over his career in clay he has specialized in Oribe, Seto-Guro and Karatsu and exhibited at various venues including Asahi Ceramic Art Exhibition, Japan Traditional craft Exhibition and the Chunichi International Exhibition. The are elements of tradition blended with modernism and hints of Rimpa thrown in for some measures harkening back to the sylized decoration of Ogata Kenzan without being too overt about it. The interior is simple and calm by contrast though decorated with a few errant plovers exactly like those that are seen on quite a few older Oribe works as well as on various Rimpa paintings where they can be spotted about the waves and sea spay in 2 and 3 dimensions. As with much of Oribe pottery, it is the carefree attitude of this piece, both the exterior and interior that truly ties it to the early Edo tradition of the casual and playful nature nurtured over the centuries and certainly still alive and well in the pottery of many modern Oribe potters, Kato Kuniya included.