STRIKE A POSE

I have to admit, I have handled more chaire by Honiwa Rakunyu II than probably any other modern potter. Rakunyu II must have been rather prolific in regards to chaire and unlike every other potter I have visited in Shigaraki (and Iga) at most they may have had one or two chaire on display, but at the Honiwa home there were eight or nine and even at the time I found this just a bit curious. Along side many of the chaire were two distinct types of shifuku bags, those of fancy, historic textile patterns and the simple honest and almost mingei style homespun made by his daughter, those bags have always been our favorites.     

Illustrated is an ever so slightly different piece by Honiwa Rakunyu, a tall, slender and graceful Shigaraki hoso-chaire with a Kyoto style textile shifuku and a well crafted and excellently fitted lid. This slender form was likely fired inbetween two pots, slightly behind them as the face is covered in a fine, wet coating of ash that feathers off to the rear that is a darker brown hi-iro that is surrounded by a thin transitional border of an almost goma-like effect. At over 11.5cm tall this is a simple, resolute form intended for one dedicated purpose but the more I look at it the more I see that it serves as much for the eye as it does the hand and in this light strikes a distinct and timeless pose.