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.