ECHIZEN TAKENOKO

A fellow collector up north sent me this photo in situ of a rather well fired pot in use on their dining room table, black cat included. Made by Echizen potter, Nishiura Takeshi, this thrown pot has had small feet attached to reorient the direction the pot was meant to be used as well as how it was fired. Resembling a bamboo shoot, this vase has a wood fired surface that speaks of some ancient promethean wrath of ash and flame engaged in some enclosed ferocious argument or at the very least a very serious personal disagreement where as luck would have it the pot survived wrapped in that molten fury. Despite knowing the origin and process of this vase I can't help but think that it appears like some mysterious found object co-opted in to use looking both natural and other-worldly at the same time. Perhaps the most enduring impression that this simple vase radiates is that of being elemental, old, ancient, medieval at the least that which ties the Echizen works of Nishiura in an unbroken line of tradition from the past to the present.