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.