AN ISLAND

Illustrated is a rather well fired, even semi-crusty Iga mizusashi that draws much of its inspiration from various feudal predecessors while subscribing to rather traditional visual values. This mizusashi has a slightly wonky appearance where the upper most top of the pot is wide and undulating, supported by a sturdy base that completes the form. The surface has a mixture of ash effects from somewhat crusty, not fully melted additions to the surface to running ash, bidoro and fields of other colors and ash build up all natural acting as a written testament to a rather maniacal, even violent process. As a modern expression of the potter’s craft (or art?), the entirety of this mizusashi straddles that fence between the old and the new.           

Perhaps one peculiar facet of this mizusashi is that it was made by Kaneshige Motoo of one of the 20^th centuries most important Bizen dynasties, in fact, he is son number four of Kaneshige Toyo, Ningen Kokuho, a hold of the tradition of the region. Though working in and made in Bizen, Okayama prefecture, this mizusashi has the appearance of Iga-yaki, the traditional pottery of Mie Prefecture, a style chosen by Motoo perhaps in part to distance and distinguish himself and his work from that of his father and brothers, each of them widely recognized for their Bizen-yaki. Whatever prompted Kaneshige Motoo to embrace Iga-yaki is immaterial what is more consequential is that using Iga clay and firing methods have been enhanced by his nuanced use of those traditions forms and aesthetic idioms leading to a distinctly organic creation of Iga pottery. This mizusashi along with the countless others stands as a delightful addition, surrounded by a vast array of traditional wood fired pottery creating an island of Iga within an ocean of Bizen-yaki.

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main"  John Donne