As I write this short post, our house which is built into a hill is being bombarded by leaves, a windy day is doing its best to clear the row of trees behind our home of all of their remaining foliage. As the symphony of falling leaves (ochiba) plays out across our roof, I am reminded of a particular bowl that I handled just a short while ago and to be honest, though I have held my share of bowls, few possess the paradoxical weight of a Banura Shiro chawan. For those familiar, Banura is a potter, an artist with a distinct voice, and his forms are deceptively simple, functional and yet contain a small universe within their walls. He works within the classic idiom where restrictions and expectations do not set boundaries he can not summit to and in doing so, the final form is always unmistakably his. This chawan, for instance, at first glance, a broad, tapered cylinder portrays stability, though it has an organic quality that scoffs at rudimentary geometry. They are formed, you can feel and sense the intention in the slight swelling, the subtle asymmetry of the rim, the way the clay was urged and coaxed; his chawan are not trying to be perfect, which is precisely why it is perfect.
The surface of a Banura chawan is another conversation, a landscape that is simple with all of the visual hues of complexity. Looking at this bowl, the glaze isn't just applied as it becomes the bowl and depending on the light source, we see that rich, almost wet luster, a deep chestnut brown that holds the darkness and reflects the room, creating an active sense of place and the space which it commands. The genius here is the subtle and nuanced texture which is a landscape born from clay, glaze and just the right amount of fire. It reminds us of its origin, the very soil that was fired into being; materials mined, clay dug, formed and baked following centuries of tradition that proceeded the making of this simple bowl.
Banura's relationship with the Rimpa tradition is evident in this work as well as the vast majority of his decorated ware. We must look closely at the stylized, silvery-grey maple leaf centered on the form, it is a signature of his master, but it is also the key. Rimpa, or rather the school that emerged from Sotatsu and Korin, was about sophisticated simplification which Banura has taken to heart and set about perfecting. The core of Rimpa took the natural world and refined it into pattern, somewhat idealized and even romanticized, a graphic elegance that Banura now applies to a different canvas, neither paper or silk but rather fired clay.
Here, the leaf is not painted on, it has just happened, like a falling leaf attracted to the naturalistic sensibility of the 3-D canvas. Look at the veins, this is classic Rimpa, the addition of gold against that deep, earthy tone is the simple addition that animates and completes the adornment, the absolute, deliberate, artifice of precious metal meeting the elemental roughness of the clay elevates the natural motif into a timeless and noble symbol, creating a focal point that is both simple and profoundly luxurious. This is Banura’s unique form, where the classic teabowl meets the graphic elegance of Rimpa, a conversation made manifest in clay.
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