MUKUNOKI BLUE

Composed of what appears to be three distinct components, this rich gosu hakeme henko was made by Mukunoki Eizo using a construction technique and surface decoration he learned from his master Kawai Kanjiro. The interesting thing about this particular henko form is that the middle and top components  are made in one mold and the bottom in another, this has afforded Mukunoki the ability to create a number of forms using several separate molds and assembling them in various ways. The last two pieces of this type that I saw, the first was glazed in a rich temmoku  with splashes of tessha and the henko was only the middle and top components and the other had a split, notched foot pedestal as the bottom of the piece which was glazed in a shinsha copper red over some slip trailing around the large central portion of the pot. This henko has been decorated in a thick coat of white slip, hakeme style around the entire surface that once glazed in his own version of the Kawai-den gosu creates a rather active and captivating landscape. It may sound a bit simplistic but how can you go wrong with white slip and a Kawai school gosu?

"The aspect of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity."   Ludwig Wittgenstein ( 1889-1951)

NELUMBO NUCIFERA

As if  cradled and suspended by a lotus blossom (nelumbo nucifera), this hakuji chawan is by Kawai Hisashi, a student of Kawai Kanjiro during the 1960s. Heavily carved out of blended Shigaraki clay, the lotus blossom design is in high relief and is a pleasure in the hand and the white glaze coats the bowl in a flowing surface while breaking to a clear accentuating the brown lines of the carved surface. Kawai Hisashi is quite well known for his high relief surface created for his molded works and for his thrown and hand carved pieces as well, many of which use his distinctive take on his master's gosu surface. The more I look at this chawan, the more I see the contemplative, almost spiritual side of the piece, embodying the Buddhist concepts of spiritual awakening and purity, both of which I think are reflected in the form and aesthetics of this simple bowl.

"Your heart is filled with fertile seeds, waiting to sprout. Just as a lotus flower springs from the mire to bloom splendidly, the interaction of the cosmic breath causes the flower of the spirit to bloom and bear fruit in this world."  Morihei Ueshiba

NON_FUNCT

If you have ever had the opportunity to visit the Kawai Kanjiro house in Kyoto or see any of his non-functional, sculptural works you can't help but be enthralled with his array of decorated wall plaque. He created these plaques in a variety of forms, sizes and styles using varying glaze combinations, neriage or slip trailed decoration, all techniques and ideas he passed on to his many students. The illustrated gosu wall plaque is by one of his very last students, Mukunoki Eizo and certainly shows the influence and instructed canons of his master. First made in a press mold, the clay is removed, firmed up and then slip trailed and following a bisque fire it is glazed over in the easily recognizable Kawai gosu creating a stark visual that makes for a rather direct non-functional work in clay. I will interject my personal belief that even non-functional objects have a rather distinct function; to enrich and help construct an environment, in other words, to please the eye and I think that Mukunoki manages that task with a few quick passes of a slip trailer and a little bit of flair.

STILL BLUE

Illustrated is a bottle vase with a hakeme slip surface under the latest incarnation of my Ao+ glaze. I throw the body of the bottle and neck separately for ease sake and then put it together and slip them making the whole process a snap. I put the slip on about a quarter of an inch thick and then comb it creating deep valleys and high points that react differently to the glaze and the touch making for the most amount of variation as is possible. I am rather pleased with this gosu like glaze and find it is highly effective over different designs, decorations and slips and works well with a large number of forms as well. Though this bottle is not terribly large it has a good presence and is made just a little bit taller through the use of the vertical combing. I will not say anything conclusively but I may be at the end of testing for this particular glaze as it does just about everything I was hoping it would do, I guess I am on to the next glaze.

AO+

There is certainly no denying the fact that I am enthralled with the work of Kawai Kanjiro and one of my goals over the past couple of years is to get close to a real gosu style glaze that is compatible with the way I work and the forms that I work with. I have always been drawn to the gosu of Kawai, all the way back to my first encounter in the early eighties; the depth, the possibilities and the mysterious qualities that hang like diaphanous silk on a form is unlike any other surface I can think of. Truthfully though, I am not looking to just copy Kawai's gosu, rather take the aspects that I love and create my own glaze, a glaze that is simpatico with my way of working and the pots I make. Fast forward to the past couple of months and I have gotten as close to the gosu that I really want as I could imagine. My Ao+ is fairly rich and has a wide array of nuances that are hard to photograph, breaking on ridges and high points, it is always just one tweak away from exactly what I see in my mind's eye. Perhaps in the next incarnation, it will be absolutely perfect, though fully aware of my nature, maybe it will be the version after that.

"Perfection is acquired by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time." Francios-Marie Arouet (1694-1778)

GOSU BLUE MONDAY II

Looking at this lyrical, slip trailed design, I am reminded of Charles Rene Mackintosh and the Arts and Crafts Movement with just a hint of Jugendstil thrown in for good measure, but if you look closely and know the work of the potter, it is definitely all Kawai Kanjiro. Given the well educated and experienced nature of Kawai, he was fully aware of the prevalent movements and historical backdrop of art, craft and specifically pottery; he was an artist of the world who happened to live and work in Japan working within a Japanese sense of design peppered with bits and pieces of what had come before. This wonderful gosu henko shows a brilliant combination of traditional Japanese style married with odds and ends of all of the experiences that Kawai had accumulated with  the areas where the slip trailing has captured and thickened the glaze, creating a rich indigo decoration which is just spectacular and the result of years of creative experience. Though more decorative and representational, it is a masterwork by the artist synonymous with gosu, Kawai Kanjiro.

DREAM

Illustrated is a bold sometsuke plate by eccentric calligrapher, painter, potter, lacquer artist and exploiter of various other mediums; Sato Katsuhiko. Painted in rich, deep cobalt gosu, the porcelain plate was provided and Sato created a dreamy kanji, yume which means dream. Considering his background, his ability to merge 2-D and 3-D is nothing short of impressive but it is the wide array of works, styles, imagery and eccentricity that makes the works of Sato Katsuhiko so impressive and dynamic.

SOMETSUKE II

Illustrated is a rather elegant, even classic Korean inspired form made of rugged porcelain with vivid, even wild sometsuke blue underglaze bringing the pot to life. The decoration of the wild, snarling tiger is by eccentric, renaissance artist, Sato Katsuhiko and in this case, his has rendered one of his rich two-dimensional paintings on to a stark, three-dimensional form, a skill he is quite adept at. Katsuhiko is truly a renaissance artist, working across every conceivable medium and creating bold and at times, confrontational images in a wide array of material. In this particular case, the pot was thrown by a potter, not Sato and then decorated in cobalt sometsuke style at which he was exceptional gifted. If you look closely, at the neck of the pot, nestled between the tiger's ears, Sato has painted one of his trademark Jizo for which he is well known for. One can not help but be engaged by the pot and image, its humor infectious and its energy palpable, the artist's real talent may be his unique ability to connect with the viewer in a wide array of emotions, pushing the button of those his works come in contact with.

BLUE MONDAY XVII

Rendered in varying tones of back ink with subtle washes and blue water color, this scroll captures all of the beauty of a masterpiece pot in two dimensions. Painted on paper, this graceful and towering vase has a fluid decoration as only Kawai Kanjiro could render them and at the foot in a rounded cartouche he has signed the scroll using the single kanji; KAN. I am more than particularly fond of preparatory drawings, sketches, water colors, shikishi and scrolls that outline an potter's thoughts in 2-D and this scroll certainly alludes to the brilliance of his masterful, three dimensional forms. Kawai Kanjiro has left a large number of ephemera to document his creativity as well as a good group of calligraphy and paintings created solely as two dimensional works of art. This particular scroll stands somewhere in-between preparatory drawing and work of art and would certainly be exhilarating to see it re-united with the pot which it may have inspired.

UTILITARIAN ELEGANCE

Illustrated is a rather simple and practical gosu glazed covered serving bowl by Kawai Takeichi. As one would expect, having spent a long while under the tutelage of Kawai Kanjiro, this piece based in total function has a utilitarian elegance in both design and execution. The knob was made to both compliment the form/lid as well as to be easy to grasp and pleasant to the eye, the flange around the area where the lid sits serves as an area that fits the hand well as a built in handle all around the form. It is these conscious and unconscious developments that are seen in many Kawai school pots that create a distinct look which is easily identifiable as the works of the master and his students. There is an undisputed brilliance to the forms and surfaces of Kawai Kanjiro which he passed on to his students by sheer fact that they were surrounded by his work, both finished and in progress; a great student, sees the work and has most of his questions answered for him of which Kawai Takeichi was certainly among the most accomplished.

GOSU BLUE MONDAY

Over the years I have been rather adamant about not really liking blue, but the evidence is all to the contrary. Not to sound like a Forest Gump character, but I do like Persian blue, Ao blue, Tokuda Yasokichi III blue and Gosu blue as well. The illustrated pot is an uncommon molded covered pot by Kawai Kanjiro. Once out of the mold, the pot had very thick white slip applied in a simple yet very expressive pattern. Because the slip is so thick, there are drying cracks about the surface of the slip that in no way detract from the piece and in many respects it adds a bit more character to the surface. Out of the bisque the pot was dipped in a gosu wash with a clear glaze over the whole pot. From my perspective there is no finer gosu than that of Kawai Kanjiro and his blue is a blue just about everyone is bound to enjoy, despite whatever their favorite color or glaze may be.