PERFECT

I am curious if you have ever heard the song by Grace Jones, I'M NOT PERFECT (BUT I'M PERFECT FOR YOU) and if so, how can I possibly relate it to pottery? In a recent email exchange with a fellow collector regarding kodai, I was asked what is the perfect foot for a chawan. As you can image my answer was there is actually no such thing but that there can be a perfect kodai for each and every chawan and that is what most potters strive for over the course of their lives. Apparently this wasn't the answer that was expected but I stuck to me guns as I was running the Grace Jones song through my head and considering that varying styles, surfaces, forms all calling for differing kodai which is clearly evidenced in the wide array and unique interpretations for feet from potter to potter and bowl to bowl.    

So skipping to the end of the exchange, I sent this photo of the kodai from the foot of a high footed Shino chawan by Tsukigata Nahiko to show my point of view. To my eye, this kodai is well addressed, stable, very functional and works hand in glove with the bowl form making it the perfect kodai for this chawan. Would it be perfect for a large Seto-Guro chawan, a Raku bowl or a Inoue Manji carved porcelain form? I guess at the end of the day, each kodai may not be perfect, but its perfect for the bowl its on, well some of the time anyway.

SHINO BUTTE

Most likely as a result of watching way too many movies and TV, when I first saw this vase, what immediately sprung to mind was Devil's Tower (Bear Lodge Butte) in Wyoming and prominently depicted in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND and in mash potatoes at a dining room table near you. This laccolithic inspired form made by Kato Toyohisa clearly has the presence of a rugged, craggy and rocky spire created over millions of years and now clearly encased in thick snow and ice but the resulting surface is actually the result of thick feldspar, haiyu, ash glaze and a good degree of temperature fusing clay, materials and the form into this geologically influenced landscape of mass and volume. The surface of this form was extensively carved, even hewn in the wet stages making for an ideal exterior for the added iron, Shino and ash which has muted the overall surface creating a rather inviting and soft appearance that is added in its verticality by the amount of running ash down the piece. It is rather obvious that Kato used the form, glazes and fire to maximum effect creating a pot both sculptural and functional in nature that acts as both landscape and abstract painting fused into three dimensions that leaves the viewer wanting more and being rewarded with each and every visit.

Illustrated is one of the follow up(s) to the Maximilian armor influenced teabowl. The first thing that is probably very apparent is that the covered box form is a real handful of texture which prior to the bisque I lightly sanded the pot to remove any sharp or bothersome edges and burrs so it now sits quite comfortably in use. As to the surface it immediately occurred to me that it had to be green, Oribe in surface and I think the choice was the right one. Once glazed and in the firing some of the glaze ran and filled up the bases of each, well most flutes creating rather deep, dark and even mysterious pools of green to rather perfect effect which is really quite effective at and around the Promethean, B.C. inspired finial. As I mentioned this was made a few days after I made the Max-bowl bowl so I decided to make a few more pieces including several covered box forms and the technique and choice of glaze seem well married though I think a rich, dark amber may work well on future pieces as well. I realize this covered box form is nothing revolutionary but in the end it think it a good follow-up to the bowl and honestly I wish everything came out as well next time around and felt like a good investment of my time.

GOOD IDEA

I first saw this pot at a somewhat obtuse angle and was immediately drawn to the simplicity and honesty of the lines and form. Constructed from several pieces and a rather good idea, the pot has a sense of disparate angles and curves all working in a well choreographed routine that is further enhanced by the wood firing from which it has emerged. The simple process of wood firing has worked to maximum advantage painting the surface with rich, red flashing and varying tones of green to sandy brown ash drifting and highlighting planes and angles around the surface. Perhaps the third act of this play is the daily encounter with sunlight and shadow that like clockwork drifts across the pot, illuminated subtleties and hidden features while the sun reaches its apex and then moves on across other pots on the shelves.    

Like so many of his pots, this is part of an ongoing series by Canadian potter, Bruce Cochrane and if I was going to sum up his work I think I would use the Paul Rand quote as the best description that I have at my disposal;  "Simplicity is not the goal. It is a by-product of a good idea and modest expectations." 

CENSER

This is an old photo, recently transferred from a 35mm slide to a digital image and was the very first picture I took on my first trip to Shigaraki. The photo was taken in front of the shop of Tani Seiuemon and is of a large, articulated and reticulated censer, koro flanked by two large dragons and a wild shishi atop the lid. The koro rests on three study legs and has a wonderful floral style decoration created by cutting through the outer wall of this double wall vessel and the surface is coated in just the right blend of hiiro and ash making for a rather feudal looking pot, several hundred years older than it actually was. Tani-san was gracious and allowed us to take photos and handle quite a few pots while serving us tea and sweets but this pot was neither for sale or to be handled and in truth, I am not sure I can blame him. We parted this trip with a small uzukumaru tsubo and a gift of a meoto yunomi set and some pictures to help jog my memory all these years later.

MORE PROTOTYPES

Illustrated is a pair of cups and saucers that were made as prototypes for a customer wanting to get a gift for an engineer. After some back and forth and explaining that the final design had to adhere to some principles of gravity and physics, this is what we arrived at. The cups were designed to be rather formal and straight  with a slight curve inward at the top, a tooled foot that is finished with a series of concentric circles and a thumb rest that also has an industrial look to them. The black ink line around the forms was simply used to make sure the handles were placed at exactly the same spot as the expectation was some degree (?) of conformity and unity. The saucers have a depressed area where the cups rest surrounded by concentric channels matching the underside of the cups with the edges finished with a gear like appearance.   

The prototype was accepted and I made a set of eight and only eight cups and saucers that were glazed in a dark green-black matt glaze that I have used in the past for flower pots and serving bowls. I was asked not to use any photos of the finished project but since these are simply greenware I thought this was a least a peek into another small commission and odd project that has come my way. A bit more demanding to make than most pieces due to the +/- exacting dimensions, these were still fun to make as I had never made anything quite like this before and after more than a few years of making pots, odd can sometimes make for a very intriguing day working in the studio.

RENZAN

Hayashi Shotaro started his education and career by studying with his brother Kyosuke who was a rather traditional Mino potter with the tiniest flair of modernism baked in to his pottery. Unlike his brother, Shotaro began to show an inclination to walk along a different pathway that had distinct elements of tradition infused with modern and sculptural elements distinguishing his work and himself from the large crowd of Mino potters. By pushing boundaries and definitions of archetypical norms, Shotaro began to create forms and ultimately surfaces that challenged the established criterion of the Mino traditions and creating at times objects that were carefully balanced vessels with both the essential elements of the function of the forms with a sense of sculptural, non-traditional renderings of everything from chawan and mizusashi to vase forms and tsubo. As the years passed, his pottery, his forms became more bold, more challenging and certainly more idiosyncratic leaving behind the more conservative pathways of what  one would point to as traditional yet adding to the tradition that has become more inclusive as potters test the boundaries and preconceived notions of what Mino means.    

Illustrated is such a pot, a simple, for Hayashi Shotaro, E-Shino mizusashi made to be a functional vessel but with a unique, brutalist and sculptural appearance that looks exactly like the natural, cataclysmic forces that create mountain ranges which is exactly what this piece is meant to recreate in ceramic. Exhibited and illustrated in a Daiwa show and catalogue in 1993, Hayashi Shotaro calls these forms Renzan-mizusashi or mountain range mizusashi and from the craggy, almost geological forms to the mimicked horizon lines painted in thick iron under the pure white glaze it is very much like looking past the peaks of one range, perhaps the Japanese Alps to the next succeeding one and its narration in form and surface and looking well beyond the traditional pot meant to hold water. I think it would be hard to convey the presence and real aesthetic impact of this Renzan-mizusashi with a single photo or a video slideshow but at some point this is my intent. For now I hope this picture gives some perspective of this provocative mizusashi that if nothing else makes it clear where Hayashi Shotaro stands in the field of modern Mino pottery, perhaps very close to the pinnacle.

IN THE ROTATION

I caught this Iga duo as the last of the sunlight washed across the shelves where there are objects on permanent display though the majority of them are transient. There are a several reasons that the display changes quite often, some of the pots are here for a brief time moving from one home to another, some are new to us pots and others are old favorites brought out of storage to be enjoyed on a whim or because it is just their time in the rotation. Rotating pots makes a modest collection seem that much larger where after months or sometimes a year a pot is brought out of its hibernation and its conversation renewed, almost like they are brand new pots.         

Such is the nature of these two Iga pots, tokkuri and guinomi, related in function, clay, firing and potter, made by Furutani Kazuya a decade ago or so. Making for a nice pair, the sunlight highlights the features and form through its all encompassing light and deep shadow and lets you see well into the glassy surface of each where the way the bones of each was built from little more than earth, water and experience. Like most pots, these will disappear, back into storage, not on to a new home and when they do it will be like another renewal of old acquaintances when they come out again perhaps about this time next year.

DAN ANDERSON (1945-2023)

Back when I was a pottery nomad of sorts, I had two encounters with Dan Anderson, both slideshow lectures and both thoughtful, inspiring and honestly fun, there seemed to be nothing boring about him. It is my second encounter that I remember most, my wife and I ended up in a car with Dan Anderson, John Gil and Kirk Mangus and though this sounds like a set up for a joke, it was a wonderful hour or so in which as a "newbie" to ceramics I learned quite a bit about wood firing and the making thought process. Despite my wife being there as a non-ceramics person, all three graciously answered her questions and I think preferred her conversation and inquiries to mine. At the time Dan was giving a lecture regarding his towers, water tanks, etc. and was beyond illuminating and humorous, it was a time worth remembering. Though very brief, hearing about his passing has been a bit sobering and reflective and I am sure anyone that has met him over his long career was touched by the encounter as another legend has left us but lives on in his teaching and body of work as well as his thoughtful collection of art and pottery all punctuating a lifetime in clay.   

I decided to use this picture which I am sure I have used this teabowl before as it is one of the only pieces of wood fired pottery that I have left that I made in the early 90s. I believe this was made about when the above encounter happened and since I have very few actual photos of that time period, this will have to act as a stand in since I have no personal pictures of Dan Anderson or his pottery and didn't just want to grab something off the internet.

A CLEAR PICTURE

Illustrated is a wonderful little Iga tokkuri by Hasu Yoshitaka with a dark, ash encrusted surface and lots of activity that a European collector sent me pictures of recently. I am a big fan of the prominent shell scars on the face of the pot where it was fired laying down which also resulted in the ominous drop of ash lingering and defying the laws of nature but adding to the tension of the piece. Perhaps as a page borrowed from his master, Banura Shiro, Hasu has carved undulating furrows around the tokkuri creating a very nice sense of movement and also adding quite a bit to the textural experience and allowing some addition ash and glaze to build up. This is one of those pots that at first glance appears to be a rather spontaneous creation but as I look at the piece in a number of photos sent it is rather clear that the potter had a good idea, a clear picture of the finished presentation and a bit of experience with the process and if you want proof just look at the simple posture and defiant pose of the lip and you will have all that you need.

QUARTER SPEED

I used this tokkuri back in 2018 as my Happy New Years post and a Youtube video slideshow and decided after all this time to pull it out and make a short slo-motion video of the pot to help fill in the gaps using a better camera and crisper image. Made by Kojima Kenji this Iga tokkuri is a perfect size and is as pleasing in its function as it is with the aesthetics of the piece. As is quite readily apparent, this tokkuri was fired on its belly and the ash has melted and run to the center turning gravity on its head a bit while standing upright and the real bonus is the wonderful bidoro drip stuck on the lip looking like some promethean jeweler has embedded an emerald into the moth of the pot. I hope the video gives a fuller sense of the size volume and dimension of the Iga tokkuri and that the quarter speed of the video gives ample time to see the landscape as it truly is in person.

BEST LAID PLANS

This abstrakt resist covered jar was an extra piece, the largest of a set of matching pieces as a commission and because I am paranoid, I made an second of the biggest one to make sure I would have all five pieces for a holiday commission. As luck would have it, both large jars made it out in great shape but the smallest jar, about 8" tall spiral cracked around the lid knob rendering it useless, something that I certainly didn't plan on and rarely see happen. As I inspected the crack it was clear that somehow a piece of organic material was inside the clay creating an air pocket (which may have been a piece of string?), something I also haven't seen in a rather long time. I had to go ahead and make another small covered jar and got the group of five packed and shipped out and I am left with this 13"+ piece as a bonus. The firing that this jar was in seemed to be a bit hotter than normal which leads to the really dark black surface and the bright colors showing as the spiral/slash repeat design. I am glad both of the bigger jars made it out safe and sound and I have thrown two extra lids to try to fit to the small jar knowing the original dimensions; time, a bisque, a glaze firing and time will tell how that works out.