BROADENING THE HORIZONS

Back in the earlier days of collecting my unofficial motto was; "if it isn't chawan its crap", we well I was 110% focused on chawan as the end all and be all. In walks Elizabeth Wilson of ASIATICA in Kansas City whom my wife met on a business trip many years ago and struck up a relationship with the gallery owner. Within a few weeks of that visit, Elizabeth had sent us photos of a large Tsujimura Shiro osara and a truly enigmatic Tamba tsubo by Ichino Etsuo along with two copies of the Arts of Asia magazine in which each issue one of the pieces was illustrated in ads for the gallery. This early encounter was destined to reshape our, again my understanding of modern Japanese ceramics broadening our horizons and kicking open the door to a vast array of varying forms as well as styles, traditions and surfaces.      

Illustrated is just such a piece that is not a chawan, this curvy koro with the cool blue glaze was made by Ono Kotaro and despite its scale it surely has quite an impact blending aethetics, function and animation all within its somewhat small form. Thrown out of thick porcelain and then festidiously carved to create rythmic waves like poetry in motion around the koro which is perfectly accentuated by the pale blue seiji surface. The lines and shadows created by the form add dimension and animation to his work which at each and every turn appears to be filled with vitality. Focusing on three primary surfaces; hakuji, ouji and seiji, Ono Kotaro has built a large repetoire of forms, some carved other smooth, using a limited but expressive palette where less is more and perfect to work in sync with the purity of the porcelain and the implied motion of the peaks and valleys of the pottery. There is rarely a day that goes by that I don't think back on those earlier formulative years with modern Japanese ceramics and think it was a really good move broadening our horizons.