A pottery collector friend of
mine who only collects American pots asked me recently what it is about
Japanese pots that has seduced away from more local pieces. I have thought
about this for quite some time and I think for me there is a visual and visceral
texture and authenticity to the pieces that I like, they use tradition as a
springboard and many rarely stray too far from that ideal but just enough to
give voice to the clay which I should also note can be said for wide swaths of
Western pottery. It is not that Japanese pottery is exotic but rather elemental
and honest with dashes of panache, subtlety and rusticity that ends up being
conversant to my sensibility, that creates an emotional resonance that I am
truly captivated by. Case in point is
this provocative Oni-Shino chawan by Tsukigata Nahiko (NMPNMP). Illustrated in several
sources, this is the pinnacle of Oni-Shino and is that perfect amalgam of
tradition and modernity where creativity, concept, talent and technique all
intersect. Though these very same attributes occur in Western pottery, perhaps
it is the vessel, the forms and the wellspring of tradition that has my focus
gazed on the east, I am not 100% sure but I can say, very little is as
elemental and exhilarating like that of an exceptional example of a modern
Japanese chawan.
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