MOUSEY

Though perhaps best known for his original and innovative Oni-Shino, besides being an all round renaissance artist, Tsukigata Nahiko was well versed in the full spectrum of the Mino tradition. Having a foundation in a wide array of glaze making, Tsukigata made a large number of pots that have quite a bit in common with their classical antecedants and this particular vase is no exception. Though neither rare or common, this vase dates to the late 1980s to the late 1990s and is typical of work which he described as Nezumi-Shino, once again taking his unique approach to the style where a highly active iron/ cobalt underglaze was used with a thick, viscous Shino glaze leading to this vivid look. There is an array of "special effects" where some of the colorants have boiled up through the surface; browns, blacks, blues, greens and turqouise perculate to the top layers of the glaze creating a rather unique landscape that like much of Tsukigata's works can easily be attributed to his hand (and mind) where what seems ordinary becomes anything but.      

Intentional or not, I immediately think of thick melting ice and snow slowing revealing the stone underneath though I suspect this type of landscape conjures up all kinds of memories and associations to each individual viewer. Perhaps one of the outstanding aspects to Tsukigata work is that no matter how many of a particular form you see, each and every pot has its own unique voice and especially landscapes. As I have seen a number of this form in varying sizes in this Nezumi-Shino surface, Ki-Seto, Oni-Shino, Muji-Shino and others, each piece is connected initially by form but each piece presented a nearly alien appearance to the other making it clear that though manipulated by the maker through glaze and firing, it was the fire that had the final say on what each pot would look like, maybe more than any other factor. In the end experience, technique and knowledge are one thing in the creation of a pot but without surrendering the pot and at least a bit of one's ego to the kiln and flames, these pots would be all the less so let's be thankful for those crucial decisions.