NANBAN CHAIRE

Illustrated is the absolute embodiment of simplicity; simple form, stream lined in every way with even the minute and superfluous details left at the wheel. Capped with a lid of the purest white, the appearance is the result of a symbiotic relationship between clay and the well controlled atmosphere within the wood fired kiln. This relationship makes for a rather sublime surface that looks like an intentionally decorated landscape of subtle textures and color variations. This chaire was made by Kabasawa Kenji who after completing his study with Nakazato Takashi set up his studio near Mount Akagi in Gumma Prefecture where he specializes in the exotic surfaces of Nanban-yaki (carbonized unglazed high-fire pottery), kohiki and mishima wares. I was struck by the honesty and perfection of this chaire and its total adherence to function with a surface that is both ancient in appearance and abstract in its presentation, how does it get any better?

EVERYDAY POT

A while back during a recent terra cotta cycle I made a few sets of pots as orders including a set of covered jars that I wrote about back in February. The bulk of the firing revolved around snowberry decorated pots, tebori XO and as in this photo, abstrakt resist pieces. This covered jar was an extra that I made at the time that ended up with a wonderfully even and dark black surface where the abstrakt colors pierced through the veil if you will. The contrast of black and the colors around the pot and on the lid is rather vivid tying the pot together as a cohesive entity while giving the pot a rather fun and animated sense. That is about the most I can ask for and hope that  makes for a good, everyday pot.

SIMPLEST TRIFECTA

I am sure that some collectors may wonder what is the fascination with Kato Yoshiaki and his sharkskin Shino glaze? I wish I had a really good or witty answer to that question but I don't, what I do know is that there is something visceral that I respond to, it is an aesthetic generally outside of the norm. The application of the iron, thick feldspathic Shino and the addition of ash from the wood fire creates a living texture that has an appeal to the most of the senses from the moment it is handled, put to the lip and functions as was intended. Along the way the topography of the surface is like a distant landscape filled with ruts and canyons that act as a guide on a journey around the form, even one as small as this guinomi. What more can you ask for than a pot that functions as intended pleases the eye and adds to the experience of its use, that may be the simplest trifecta of fired clay.

103.59

So it wasn't all that long ago that I assumed that the largest kiln in Japan was that of the Bizen potter Mori Togaku coming in at 85 meters long but I recently learned that there is a Guinness record for the longest bricked kiln measuring in at 103.59 meters in Kuroishi, Aomori prefecture built by potter, Imai Rikei (Keiichi). Illustrated is an Ujoyaki chawan made by Imai Rikei before he held the record for longest kiln which is clearly well fired and has qualities of a number of wood fired styles including Bizen and Shigaraki. Featuring a wide array of natural kiln effects which starts with a backdrop of thick, wet flashing, lots of ash built up on the face and across the entire foot of the chawan concluding this is a rather intriguing bowl whether it was fired in the longest of shortest kiln in Aomori. As you can see this chawan was fired upside down leading to a number of ash drips around the lip as well as the running ash appearing to defy gravity which opens up into an interior that is mostly devoid of any built up ash effects excepting some light flashing and what appears to be ghostly white line where straw separated the bowl from the foot of another pot on which it was fired. Though not a household name, this chawan by Imai Rikei is a perfect amalgam of function, purpose and rustic appearance that makes for an honest, easy to use pot that speaks to each and every sense with each encounter.

https://www.trocadero.com/stores/albedo3studio/items/1476825/AOMORI-WOOD-FIRED-CHAWAN-BY-IMAI-RIKEI

TOO MUCH OR NOT ENOUGH

At first glance this bowl appears like just another faceted greenware teabowl but locked inside the clay is another idea for a test, made from scratch I added a measured amount of manganese dioxide and red iron oxide to the body for use under my new thin Hagi style glaze. The big question will be is it too much or not enough to affect the outcome? Though it is likely going to be a while before I get this in a glaze firing as I am working with terra cotta at the moment, I had the spare time and a long lists of things I want to test or try out including getting my matt ash glaze to work a bit better so I am working my way down the must try agenda and this idea was next up. For the record I am not expecting a super dark clay body but I am hoping that it darkens up enough and alters the white of the surface enough to create something of interest. There is not a lot invested in to the project, a little less than two pounds of clay, a tiny bit of two chemicals and perhaps 15 minutes to throw, facet, dry and tool the bowl, less time than I spend pulling my hair out watching the nightly news.     

As a postscript, I wrote this several months ago after making this test clay and bowl and finally got the piece into a kiln and fired though I wish I hadn't. Sometimes not knowing is better than what actually occurs and there is still some degree of promise but while unloading the kiln the results were in. The glazed test bowl had slightly melted to a piece of broken shelf as if the clay itself got just a bit wet and also became excessively brittle and broke as I tried to remove it from its safety plinth and to be quite honest it made for  a rather unattractive color all around for both clay and glaze. Though I really didn't use that much manganese or iron to this small batch white stoneware it still was enough to create havoc and a rather unexpected and unwanted clay base from which to move forward, maybe I'll just stick with the stoneware, white stoneware, porcelain and neriage moving forward. 

(Sorry there are no additional pictures,  I couldn't see the point of showing a pile of shards.)

IGA BY WAY OF BIZEN

I'll start out by saying this is a rather old picture, it probably dates to the early 2000s and when I first saw a jpeg of this piece I realized that I wasn't looking at typical Iga ware despite the description on the wood box. At first glance the form seemed a bit alien to the Iga tradition having a relationship to a number of Bizen mizusashi that I have seen over the years and once the piece arrived here, I realized immediately that my concerns were right on point. This Iga-yaki mizusashi was made by Kaneshige Moto'o, (b.1945) the forth son of Kaneshige Toyo who after years at another job set up a studio in Misugi, Mie Prefecture and proceeded to create Iga-yaki, relying on the natural ash of the firing  to best suit his forms and pottery style. It is quite easy to understand that coming out of the mainline Kaneshige family and growing up around the potter of his father Toyo and brothers Michiaki and Kosuke that the sense of Bizen forms and pottery making would be well rooted in the subconscious and that is rather clear in this form though the clay and surface is much more about Iga than Bizen.

OUTCOME

Thrown and faceted out a a slightly coarse clay this Iga chawan was first partially glazed (seed glazing) and then fired in a wood kiln by third generation potter, Sakamoto Yoshihito. I have written about Sakamoto previously and in that case the vase was naturally wood fired, shizen-yu style which has a distinctly different look than this chawan. This chawan has a nice landscape created by the glaze, rich hi-iro fire color and the grouping of serious and brutish looking shell scars that have that classic pate-de-verre appearance on one side of the bowl. The face of this chawan is covered in a pale grey-green ash that accentuates the texture and facets of the clay which has a strong visual impact and presents a slight sense of movement almost as if the bowl is swaying rhythmically. The entire interior is coated in a nice layer of the ash glaze which seems to highlight the teapool and the chawan is finished with a strong, purposeful kodai that was left unglazed and has benefited from the natural effects of the wood firing with varying light ash brings life to the area. 

Though the surface is a combination of both being glazed and wood fired the overall piece has a rather genuine appearance, almost calm despite the scars and clay texture that is rather warm and inviting to my eye.   At the end of the day, glazed or unglazed it really doesn't matter how it got there but rather what is the outcome and that it has just what you would want out of a chawan, ready for use and pleasing to the senses.

 

ANOTHER END OF DAY

Though I rarely work in really large series of pots, I am not that guy who sits down and throws 40 of the same thing, even in my smaller series of a dozen or so similar pieces it can get a bit trying as the eleventh piece comes along to decorate or carve. Illustrated is what I refer to as an end of day bowl and with this group there were actually two bowls that deviated from tried and true designs that I had planned on carving. This particular decoration is another variation on an old design that I refer to as "tree of life" blended together with my "intersection" design and I think it works well to articulate the shape and space of the medium sized terra cotta v-bowl. This may just seem like just another carved tebori design but after carving out ten of the same decoration even a small deviation is a most welcome to a potter who has the patience is measured in mirco-grams.

TUMULTUOUS PROCESS

Illustrated is a medium size Shigaraki tsubo, though of simple form it is the firing that really grabs your attention and hold it as there is movement and ash enough for several pot. Made by Koyama Naohiko, son of Koyama Kiyoko, it is the simplicity and modest scale of the pot that has acted as the perfect clay canvas for what can only be described as a very fine firing. As evidenced by the clam shell scar at the extreme left of the pot, this was fired on its belly and the ash that built up had nowhere to go but down and thanks to gravity this beautiful cascading landscape was created. Like a small chawan by the same potter that I put up some time ago this tsubo is covered from top to bottom and in 360 degrees with varying ash and ash effects making for a rather contemplative vessel where the potter gave way to serendipity and happenstance of what can be a tumultuous process, wood firing at its best.

HARMONY

A first glance it is easy to think what a simple foot but having had some time to live with this pot I am convinced it is anything but that. After decades of throwing/tooling pots, this foot by Kimura Morinobu shows a craftsman's confidence of cutting the feet of bowl after bowl on a board without any hesitancy and adapting the needs of each foot to the variations with each pot. With an eye to function and cohesion the foot is in perfect proportions to the pot, relying on the "goldilocks" effect of being neither too big, nor too small, neither too low or too tall, creating what each form demands to please the eye and create a sense of symmetry to a hand-made object. 

Beyond the skill of creating the foot, Kimura relies heavily on the cut texture of the clay to "spice" up the foot which is then further harmonized with the choice of glaze best to suit clay and form. Working in conjunction with the texture of the "exposed" clay, there is just enough glaze around the foot to add a perpetually wet sheen to the surface which both helps keep the area pristine while further enhancing the depth and atmosphere of the kodai. It only stands to reason that working, day in and day out for decades within the sphere of functional pottery allows for an atmosphere of harmony to evolve where more things work in totality and the complex unconscious decisions make for a simple foot on a simple bowl even if the viewer knows better.

EIGHT SIDED SQUARE

Highlighted by rare sunlight this teabowl was part of a series of hexagonal and octagonal faceted pieces, joking referred to as the "polygon group". This particular bowl was thrown out of the small batch sandy white stoneware clay I have been mixing up. The whiter clay makes for a brighter Kuro-Oribe surface especially in the sunlight while allowing for the textured clay to show through and the dark blue-black surface to take a more prominent role in the production. As you can see, though basically square in form, each plane is pushed out in the center and faceted to either side which makes for a nice dividing point where the higher ridges creates a series of whitish craggy peaks. The foot on this bowl is more or less traditional having been tooled on the wheel while several of the other bowls had their feet cut square to compliment the overall forms. Though there is nothing earth shattering about these forms, it does give me  a break from the thrown round grind and allows for trying out simple ideas to present a form in a newer way as this squared, eight sided teabowl shows.

ALMOST II

At first glance this tsubo has the appearance of almost  being a large, medieval style jar favored by Tokoname potter Takeuchi Kimiaki but as you look at the pot things give away the actual scale of the piece. In form and proportions this is a small version of a usually much larger O-Tsubo form and as you check out the varying drips around the pot it is quite clear this pot is quite a bit smaller than its archetype measuring in at about five inches tall. Despite its size this ko-tsubo has all of the features of the larger relations from the wonderfully wonky and undulating lip to the running ash glaze each terminated by deep green drips which would be monumental is size if this were a large tsubo. Though admittedly a large Takeuchi Tokoname tsubo filling the corner of a room would be quite spectacular this tsubo captures the essence, posture and aesthetics of a larger version. Lastly there are a unique set of assets to a piece this scale; easier to move about, much easier to place on an over-crowded bookshelf and infinitely easier to keep dusted, sometimes small does have its advantages.     

"From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow."  Aeschylus