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.