WHITE OUT

We have had our share of weather here for the past two weeks being on the fringe of the three seperate Nor'easters that have hit this region but today the sun is out creating a virtual white out as the treees, ground and building are covered in snow and the drips of the melt can be seen and heard every where. The mood as you look out the windows made me think back on a wonderous Miwa Kyusetsu Hagi chawan owned by a friend of mine. It is broad, generous and full of spirit as it creates its own visual white out as you survey the form with hints of the rich daido clay peaking through crawling in the glaze and at the foot where the glaze is either thinning or non-existent. I really like this chawan, though large it is not as large as some of Kyusetsu's (Jyusetsu) later more sculptural and statement oriented pieces, the crawling is just the right amount of activity to activate and animate the surface and the posture of the chawan, foot and lip all present a form directed by purpose and a particular aesthetic. Thanks to the  intimate scale of this chawan, I can't help but see a snow covered universe held firmly in one's hands.

HAIKABURI

Illustrated is a magnificent, thrown and squared yohen-haikaburi Shira-Hagi mizusashi by Ningen Kokuho, Miwa Jyusetsu XI (1910- ). Unlike most Hagi-yaki, this monolithic form mizusashi has a wide variety of color and texture from the use of a rich iron slip under the glaze, iron over the glaze and the results of an intense wood firing in which areas of the pot have been covered with ash as well as reducing areas of the underlying slip. As much sculpture as it is tea utensil (chadogu), this pot is a tour de force by Kyusetsu and aptly depicts why the Miwa “dynasty” leads the way among all of Hagi. The real brilliance of this style of pot was succinctly pointed out as having “prioritized form over function” by Miwa Kyusetsu XII (formerly Ryosaku), son of Miwa Jyusetsu (formerly, Kyusetsu XI). Once able to break away from the convention of absolute utility, this body of work has added a new vocabulary to the Hagi tradition. Today, Jyusetsu’s works act as a new, modern archetype for anyone interested in Hagi-yaki.

(From a private American collection)