HANABI II

Recently I was contacted regarding making another hanabi fireworks teabowl but they didn't want an "exact" copy of the orginal set, rather something that had the same general decoration and feel but would stand apart from the other bowl. I was rather relieved they wanted something in the same style and technique because whenever you actually try to make a copy, exact or close, things don't normally pan out well, at least from my experience. On top of that, revisting something almost a year later I know I always wonder if I will get to the heart of why the individual wants it in the first place, does it have the same spirit or sensibility. I know this is basically a simple bowl with a very simple technique employed and not complex rocket science but when  someone wants something the goal is to try to live up to the expectation.     

Illustrated is the recreated hanabi technique, the white areas and the bowl shape are made a bit more formal with high mostly straight sides and just a hint of throwing rings around the form. As for the colors, they were easy to match and the bowl has that deep black, glossy look broken up with the white panels and colors punctuated and splashed across the surface. I would like to think I succeeded in my goal as the customer was happy so I guess that is about as good as it gets.

WELL CONSIDERED ADVENTURE

Illustrated is another Kuro-Bizen tokkuri by Oiwa Tomoyuki and this one is of a different form and approach than the previous one, another well considered adventure. Composed of a number of focal points and various angles and crisp, sharp shoulder the raised band around the waist and the inviting flare of the mouth all work well together while modelling its new suit of ash and lusterous black that  breathes life into paints the form and paints the narrates. The waisted center of the tokkuri calls to the user and makes for a perfect purchase for pouring of just admiring in hand while the dual texture of the glossy black and the semi-matt ash appeal to both eye and hand. There is something captivating about the posture and goals involved in the creation of this tokkuri; the body is a perfect size and the neck and mouth compliment the proportions and all together it carries out a conversation regarding function and aesthetics. To my eye, Oiwa has struck a wonderful balance of taking what he learned under his master, Kakurezaki coupled with his own vision and blended it into a statement about an evolving, modern tradition where new techniques, ideas and firing usher in a whole new understanding of what it means to be Bizen now and well into the future.

NULLUS SUBSITUTUS

I'll start out by saying that I realize there is no substitute* for the real thing, in this case a gosu hakeme chawan by Kawai Kanjiro but when I first saw this bowl, I immediately thought that this was in the top percentage of work by one of his pupils, Mukunoki Eizo. Both the broad bowl form and foot are reminescent of Kanjiro's chawan but there is a subtle difference in shape and the bold application of thick hakeme slip, a difference that is easily identifiable yet all the features of Mukunoki's pot quickly add up to one is truly a remarkable work by a student and not the master. Consideration has been paid to the form and  function of this chawan with a lip that is both sturdy and narrow enough to drink from with a broad, pleasant curve and volume to the bowl and a strong, pedestal foot that acts as a perfect resting place as well as a stark visual feature that weighs in as a counterbalance to the overal aesthetic. The interior of the bowl has a thick, crackled clear glaze while a gosu covers the highly textural hakeme slip in blue with areas of rich iron make their way to the surface adding even more dimension to a study in ceramic topography. 

Just to be clear, this chawan is in no way a substitute for the work of Kawai Kanjiro but given the difference in everything from foot to surface is it even possible to make that leap when you are judging the pot on its own merits and that of the potter, Mukunoki Eizo.  

( *I wrote this post after an exchange with a fellow collector who asked me if this wasn't just a "poor mans" substitute for the original, a contention I strongly disagree with.)

SOCIAL MEDIA

Being an individual more than willing to embrace the 21st century, I just wanted to take a momnet to let any bloggers know that I am also on both Instagram and Facebook. These outlet are using a lot of the old posts used first here on I, POTTER but there are some new and slightly different content if you wish to take a look.

https://www.instagram.com/albedo3studio/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100074959900457

ANOTHER CLASSIC II

Quite some time ago, 2012 to be exact, I put up a dealer's photo of a classic Furutani Michio Iga mizusashi and now here is an impromptu photo of the same mizusashi showing off the opposite side in situ. I am sure there is a wide array of superlatives that could be used to describe this piece but I will use a few; classic, modern archetype and elementally rustic. What is abundantly clear in this photo and the previous one is that this strong, sturdy form is like a completed puzzle of details that bring life to the piece from the casual potter's marks, the lugs, the lid and knob surrounded by a vivid lake of pure green glass. Through a carefully crafted blend of experience, happenstance and firing acumen, Furutani Michio's pottery stand out among his contemporaries helping to bring a tradition well into the 21st century and leaving behind a tremendous body of work which can be enjoyed at face level of act as an ongoing tool to teach modern potters what it means to have dedicated a lifetime to the dual traditions of Iga and Shigaraki pottery.       

You can see the original 2012 post by following this link;

https://albedo3studio.blogspot.com/2012/09/another-classic.html

YAKISHIME PART II

Back in 2018 I put up a post entitled, YAKISHIME about an unglazed, wood fired mizusashi by Kimura Morinobu. Little did I know at the time that this mizusashi would come my way and secondly it would also be only my second kintsugi piece of pottery ever collected. I was surfing around a site and happened to spy this Shigaraki mizusashi when I immediately recognized it from the retrospective book; KIMURA MORINOBU SAKUTO GOJU NEN, 1951-2000 and it was put up with a total of ten photo. What I had not realized when I first saw this photo was that it had two kintsugi repairs where the lip cracked as the pot was fired on its side with yet another pot's weight on top of it. In the firing the form compressed oval and the lip, top and bottom split a small amount and were both later repaired/ filled, kintsugi style which is shown in the retrospective catalogue.    

Illustrated is the mizusashi in question which is described as "Shigaraki Mizusashi" and living only a few miles away from Shigaraki perhaps the description is close to spot on. The face of this pot is covered in a thin, fine layer of ash that breaks and gives way to some ash, lots of hiiro fire color and various areas of buff, feldspar saturated clay where the mizusashi laid on its side during firing. The form, distorted from the firing process has become  wonderfully animated where it has been squeezed a bit ovoid which also lead to the mouth splitting at what was north and top and bottom during the process. The lacquer repairs bring a bit of restored dignity to the integrity of the mizusashi and the custom lacquer lid fits perfectly in the kidney shaped aperture of the mouth. 

In retrospect I find it a small dose of serendipity that I pot that I admired and decided to post should five years later come my way and at the same time teach me an interesting lesson about kintsugi and how that process has added to the presence and aesthetics of a pot that benefits greatly from the specific and caring traditional attention it received.

WHAT A PAIR II

I received this (and quite a few other) picture(s) the other day from a shuki enthusiast in Europe. We have been trading back and forth pictures of various pots but mostly guinomi and tokkuri and this was his latest addition. When I first saw these two pieces together all I could truly think was 'what a pair", these pieces just work well together in form and surface and must be a joy to have just hanging around on a desktop. Both the Bizen tokkuri and guinomi were made by Oiwa Tomoyuki, a former apprentice of Kakurezaki Ryuichi and despite some of the obvious influences of the master, Oiwa has carved out a nice niche for himself where his voice, handling of clay and his firings have become rather distinctive.          

The tokkuri has a wonderfully sturdy form where the potter has tied in various details from the tapered foot, swelled out mid-section and faceted top culminating in a crisp and depressed shoulder that serves as a great foundation for the perfectly proportioned neck and mouth and death defying drip, front and center. As you can see, this tokkuri was fired on its side where the running ash has beaded up near the shell scars of the wadding creating a nice focal point of unintended decoration. 

Not to be outdone, the guinomi was fired upside down ending up with two, nearly perfectly placed drip of ash suspended as if gravity was not one of newton's laws or a guiding principle of the universe. The rich, shiny black interior is comingled with deposited ash the runs vividly toward the lip creating a rather intoxicating appearance and perfect for its intended use. I am sure that at the end of the day, every collector and sake enthusiast has there own definition of what makes for a perfect pair but I think these pieces speak volumes about gravity and determination which is clearly written across their surfaces and form from top to bottom and to my eye, they just belong together.

SIMPLE MUGSHOT

Today was supposed to be a productive day, lots of plans, slip and glazes to make up, tooling a few pieces thrown yesterday on a whim and clean some stuff up around the studio. Instead, phonecalls, slight household hiccup, emails and other distraction but at least I got things cleaned up which lead me to uncover this rather old mug. I thought this would be perfect for a mugshot Monday thing, so I dusted it off, it is quite old after all and took an impromptu picture. At least now if you should spot one of these out in the wild you'll be able to recognize where it came from.

APPERANCES CAN BE DECEIVING

I guess the maxim "appearances can be deceiving" makes quite a bit of sense. especially when pots are involved. When I first saw this vase (a single picture) I was sure I was looking at one of the Miraku Kamei potters, XIII, XIV or XV though I suspected one of the earlier generations. Once it arrived, I realized I was rather far afield on this one judging solely from the single, static image, it turned out to be by well known studio potter, Yasuhara Kimei. As you can see this piece bares absolutely no resemblance to Yasuhara's best known sekki stone texture but rather showcases his diversity and technical glaze mastery which he inherited from his master Itaya Hazan during his days at the Totokai in Tokyo. Once he established his own studio in the very late 1920's much of Yasuhara's work centered around more traditional or classic glazed wares of which this almost Takatori style vase fits well into that body of work.  

Thrown skillfully out of porcelain this classic form had wonderful molded fish lugs applied to either side of the neck which brings this piece to like and breaks up the lines of the form. The glaze, running and streaking about the pot is the perfect surface accentuating each component of the vase including th addition of iron to the tips of the fins of each fish lug. I have to admit that given what is mostly considered synonomous with Yasuhara Kimei this glazed, simple pot has a simple sense of classicism and formality. This formality distinguishes itself from his later work but clearly shows his grasp of the fundamentals needed before moving on to a style filled with more freedom and adventure, even a potter needs to learn to walk before he can run.

POWER DOWN

Since I am sure everyone is on pins and needles, my terra cotta cycle concluded last Weds with an array of slip trailed, carved and black pieces for decorating all now in the drying phase. Illustrated is the first two pieces that I threw at the beginning of the cycle last week, two covered serving bowls, tooled and black slipped, carved and then the dots of white slip were added. My intention is to get the group of greenware blanks decorated and hopefull everything in a bisque this Friday or Saturday, it is cool and damp in the studio so only time will tell.

RARE?

RARE /rer/ not found in large numbers and consequently of interest or value; unusually good or remarkable 

 A lot of people end up using the term, "rare" when describing object to infer monentary value or aesthertic or cultural value and over the years I have wondered how often the term actually applies. I am in no way inferring that I somehow have the monopoly of what is or is not rare but rare is not defined as an object that is just rarely observed or come in contact with. I believe there is more to the word, beyond unusual, not typical or other descriptive terms, it has to be something that is uncommon, out of an artists or craftsman normal ouvre of being of such a incredible example that it deserves such a moniker. I will start by saying that I am not sure if this simple Shino chawan is rare or not simply because it is the only one I have ever seen but rather it is not at all typical of the potter who made it. 

This simple Shino chawan was thrown out of a dense, white Shigaraki clay and glazed in Shino prior to firing, the bowl was glazed and fired at Toyozo Arakawa's kiln and fired in a sagger. As for the potter, this was made by Shigaraki pioneer, Takahashi Rakusai III sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s. The form of the chawan is not exactly typical of the potter and the glaze and simple XXX design around the top portion of the bowl is not something you would encounter on a normal day strolling into Rakusai's studio. This chawan was made and fired at a time when some of the most important potters of the day where sharing ideas and space in their kilns to the effect of seeing Bizen, Shigaraki and Karatsu pots by Arakawa and other combinations by potters like Rakusai III and Kaneshige Toyo making for a rather fertile exchange of traditions leading to this possibly rare Shino chawan that is certainly outside of the tradition that the potter is certainly best known for and connected to the heart of Shigaraki. 

 I should apologize for the quality of the photo as well, this was taken nearly 20 years ago using a digital camera when they were in their infancy and it has been converted from an old discette to jpeg after jpeg and this is what I have ended up with. I don't have the option to rephotograph this pot so as they say, it is what it is.

SAIYU

At first glance I thought this saiyu mizusashi looked quite a bit like a piece by Shinkai Kanzan only to find out it was in fact by the Kutani potter, Asano Norio. Where Shinkai was influenced in this technique by Kiyomizu Rokubei VI, Asano came by this from his master Kitade Fujio before he moved on and set up his own studio and kiln, Kyokusen-gama. Like Shinkai, this technique uses paper resist with applied slip and then an almost Persian blue style glaze which has culminated into a thick blue roll at the base of the pot. A very thin cobalt wash was applied to the surface to accent the geometric design all of which is brought out to its fullest potential in the afternoon sunlight. This appears to be fairly early work of Asano and the the form, lid and knob are very simple in many respects it had to be to create a balance with the colorful and moving surface, a rather nice blend of form and function with a rather particular aesthetic thrown in for good measure.