ENCOUNTERS

Over the past couple of years I have had a number encounters with chawan by Koinuma Michio who to be honest, is not really well known for his chawan. The styles have been all over the map from the golden glazed chawan I posted over a year ago to a variety of glazed bowls but recently a salt fired chawan popped up. A bit compact in size, the form is somewhat sculpted creating various planes for the potter to decorate which in this case is a very graphically oriented circle, square and triangle design represent the Zen cosmos. The lip echoes the carefully faceted body with sweeping angles and the base slopes softly toward the well cut broad foot. The foot is surrounded by three areas of what can only be called "calcium blooms" from the clam shells acting as props during the firing vaporizing and further enhancing the verigated surface. What constantly intrigues me about Koinuma work is the way in which a more sculpturally oriented potter approaches a vessel of ritual and function with centuries of precedant.  In spite of those lofty and imposing  guidelines and restrictions, Koinuma Michio is able to create chawan based on his experienced approach to form and surface that clearly is tied to a larger body of work which clearly transcends the expected utility.