PARAGON

Perhaps a bit like a wandering solitary samurai, I really love the brooding, dark and complex nature of this yohen style Hagi chawan which exudes character and carries itself with its own defined purpose like a modern paragon. This chawan was dug out of a hunk of clay, kuriniku style as if the form had been in the earth since long before it was pulled from the earth to end up this form filled with motion and a posture that is exceptionally enticing. Created, glazed and fired by Kaneta Masanao the glaze surface is the result of years of experience where a careful and wild blend of Hagi glaze, ash, intense heat and the atmosphere conspired to create this gem of a chawan that certainly means as much in the hand as it does to the eye. The combination of the bones of the pot and the melting glaze makes for a dramatic and coordinated dance of movement, animated through their combination and now locked away in a visual struggle until such a time as the molecules and atoms of the piece drift away and the bowl is no more. I can say that though I have seen quite a number of Kaneta Masanao's chawan of all shapes , sizes and styles few are as evocative and prescient regarding the future of Hagi and all of the vast possibilities locked away inside the DNA and clay of those that work within the tradition.