IRON FOREST

I wonder if John Heywood included this Renaissance proverb in his anthology (1546) if he saw into the future, seeing this mounted tile ala his contemporary Nostradamus. The proverb I was referencing is “Can’t see the forest for the trees”, which may or may not apply to this large glazed landscape tile by Kimura Morinobu but is certainly easy to see where it could. Made of thick and heavy (!) stoneware, the slab is decorated using iron and ash to present both the forest and the trees in a semi-abstract manner, aptly entitled, “Mori” or Forest. Starting in the early 90s Kimura Morinobu began using this design quite a bit depicting both cat-tails and trees using a clear style ash glaze and deep, rich iron on all types of two- and three-dimensional pots where the cat-tails became a favorite on larger tsubo with a nuka style glaze. 

In the book, KIMURA MORINOBU; Sakutoh Go-Ju Nen 1951 to 2000, there is much larger forest tile decorated in a nearly exact approach as this framed one, the date is 1996 (Heisei 8) while this one is not illustrated it was exhibited at the Osaka Takashimaya Department Store sometime in the mid to late 1990s. All in all this is a rather nice presentation of another dimension of a potter who has dedicated a life to his pottery art and in this case conjures up an iron forest with nothing more than a paintbrush , a bit of clay and some toasty temperature.