FINE LINE

To some people, boring and to others current and lively, maybe that is what kohiki is all about though it is hard to deny the function and utility of the bulk of this work from every day to tea ceremony. I was just having an email exchange when I came across a folder of yunomi that I had here a long while past, a collection that I was selling for a retiring friend and amongst the pictures was this Ogawa Tetsuo kohiki yunomi.  Now I will admit there is a very fine line perhaps a razors edge between boring and simplicity and after all it is a word used way too often but I would argue there is elegance to this simple and noble kohiki yunomi whose sole purpose is to press on in service, to be seen and to be used like century's worth of pottery that has been made and used before it. Because of the simplicity of the surface, there is absolute clarity of form, nothing to hide faults and foibles, nothing to misdirect the eye, what you see is just exactly what you get and in this practical piece, the potter's goal is function with just the right amount of aesthetic considerations thrown in to make the yunomi go, "pick me, use me" and why wouldn't you?