EGARATSU

With the perfect pigment and brush and a well practiced hand, the decoration on this Egaratsu chawan seems tailor made for this pot, creating motion and both accentuating the horizontal natural of the form and adding wispy hints to allude to the vertical. Made by Maruta Munehiko (b.1961) this chawan sums up what Egaratsu is about with this pot easily identifiable as that style. Maruta grew up around clay as his father, Maruta Masami was a famous folk potter before going on to study with Hamada Atsuya, third son of Hamada Shoji before returning home to Karatsu to set up his own studio. Using a number of local clays and in various Karatsu styles, Maruta create a rich and diverse array of pottery of which the Egaratsu is among my favorite. Even in a field, crowded by a number of potters and pots it would be hard to just walk by this bowl without having the feeling that it needs to be picked up and brought home with all due haste.

"In the brush doing what its doing, it will stumbles on what one couldn't do by oneself."  Robert Motherwell

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU

I was chided recently that I should rename my blog to "Stuff I Like" as most of my posts are about pots that I enjoy as potter and collector. The big question I have though is why would I write about stuff I am not interested in or passionate about. Should I start a blog about spinach and broccoli both of which I intensely dislike? To be perfectly fair though, there are a number of pots that are on my blog that may not be pots I would collect for myself, they were sent here to sell, identify or even just study, they are good pots in every sense just not my cup of tea. I guess as someone who was a reluctant blogger I am going to continue to write about stuff that interests me and hope that in sharing, it may interest people who stumble on or follow my blog and open lines of communication to others.

Illustrated is a pot that I like quite a bit. I have seen forms like this before but this illustration from a Japanese ceramic magazine just really spoke to me from its feudal appearance, form and posture to the truly weathered and simple surface, this pot just exudes a visceral dialogue that I find palpable. Made by the late scholar, author, mentor, connoisseur and potter, Koyama Fujio (1900-1975), this Karatsu/Nanban bottle has every quality of a timelessness, the appearance has an unconscious quality to it, unconcerned with any thoughts of perfection, a pot meant for use with the aesthetic resonance a distant after thought but a sheer joy to drink in. When I think of the myriad of terms associated with Japanese tea aesthetics, this little pot always springs to mind, it prossesses nearly all of them.

OCHAWANGAMA

A friend sent me this all too short video of Nakazato Taroemon XIII working and a brief appearance of the famous Karatsu Ochawangama covered over in a soft blanket of grass which is now a shrine in the city of Karatsu. Known for his E-garatsu iron decorated wares and his vivid Persian blue style pottery, Taroemon XIII (1923-2009) is shown brushing an iron pigment over slip on a tsubo, the video also showns some still photos of his father, Ningen Kokuho (Juyo Mukei Bunkazai) Nakazato Muan, Taroemon XII ( 1895-1995) at his kiln and at work and is represented by a vivid Karatsu mizusashi.

COOL BLUE TILE

Illustrated is a cool blue tile by legendary Karatsu potter, Nakazato Taroemon XIII (1923-2009). Using a rich black pigment, Nakazato has painted a classic E-Garatsu style design which he is well known for on this stoneware tile and then glazed it in a blue glaze he is also quite well known for. During the firing the pigment bled just enough to soften the design and create a unique interpretation of a classic design. Known for his unique use of inlay, tataki technique and brushwork, Taroemon XIII inherited centuries of Karatsu tradition through his father, Nakazato Muan (Ningen Kokuho) which he in turn has passed on to family, students and contemporaries alike. In much of his work, there is a directness and simplicity that draws from the past yet Taroemon strived to add the freshness of his times, Showa and Heisei in to all of his pottery.

"Not so much the painting of the tip of the brush but rather are so sensitive I would like to call them pictures painted by the heart." A quote from Kato Hajime discussing the myriad of brushed designs found on Karatsu pottery from the book; KARATSU by Johanna Becker, O.S.B.

IRON KESHIKI

Illustrated is a pot that you don't see every day, a casually glazed and decorated Shino mizusashi by Arakawa Toyozo. Though all Shino, the form has a certain amount of Karatsu inspiration in the making but the glaze and classic iron underglaze decoration of a mountain and tree landscape is all Mino and pure Arakawa. The thin glaze created a blushed hue in the firing rather than a more pure Shino white surface and there are areas around the top portion of the pot where ash has landed creating a very nice effect. The underglaze decoration used on this mizusashi is typical of Arakawa's work and can be seen on a large number of his pots though this particular rendition has a very Momoyama suiboku style feeling to the design easily at home painted in ink on paper as it is on ceramic. The gallery where the lid rests is fully glazed over and has no scars from wad impressions so the pot was made without a ceramic lid and comes complete with a custom made ro-iro lacquer one which highlights the rough wood grain. I guess I will always think of this pot as the mizusashi with the great keshiki with the wonderful landscape.

"The landscape belongs to the person who looks at it..."     Ralph Waldo Emerson

(Photo used with the permission of a private collector.)

KARATSU-KODAI

To my eye, this is no ordinary kodai. Though simple, it has a studied complexity that harkens back to Ko-Karatsu style pottery; the chirimen-kodai, crinkled silk crepe texture, immediately identifies the pot as Karatsu ware, a common trait among southern works(Kyushu-mono). The classic and timeless kodai is crisp and sharply cut, the texture standing out from within the kodai creating a wonderful visual landscaped microcosm. The foot-ring bares the marks of the cut-off cord, that separates the bowl from the wheel head, adding to the swift and spontaneous nature in which the kodai was addressed. This foot was cut by Tanaka Sajiro (b.1937), a master of Karatsu-yaki whose works show a life dedicated to the study of this regional pottery. Tanaka is a man of many talents having studied Zen Buddhism, chanoyu, ikebana, calligraphy, poetry and of course pottery making. Having excavated Ko-Karatsu kiln sites, he studied the manner of their manufacture and firing, in this way, started on the path to making Karatsu-yaki. There are few potters as adept and thoughtful in their creation of Karatsu ware as Tanaka and his kodai are among the very finest.

IPTV; IN THE ROUND

I was recently asked to express the volume and scale of some of my teabowls as I am prone to describing them as large. To me large is usually over 5” across and the bowl displaces a significant volume. Trying to imply the volume a pot has is difficulties, even with a picture, so, since the measurements don’t always convey the scale of a piece, I thought to try a video of a recent teabowl. Maybe a moving image, in the round, will help a bit more.

This video is of one of my Karatsu influenced tataki teabowls and glazed with a Haiyu and Temmoku glazes. There is a variety of tones in the Haiyu glaze running from green, olive, tans and rust that all accentuates the tataki paddled surface. Though not of a Kumano Kuroemon scale, at over 5.5” across, it is large and generous in its proportions.

F72111

I fired the kiln yesterday, the hottest day of the year, so far. Just would figure that would be the intersection between plans made and nature. It was brutal firing the kiln and the cat was even giving me these looks like; “what the h*ll were you thinking”. In my mind, I wanted the kiln fired to get some orders unloaded and packed and shipped out right away. Good customer service goes a long way and it is always a relief to have some things finalized. The other reason I was so stubborn was I wanted to see a couple pots in particular and a group of pots that were testing a new glaze.

As may be apparent for anyone on the outside looking in, I have a hard time leaving any one glaze alone. I seem to have a compulsion to tamper with, tweak, tear and re-assemble a glaze to see what I can get it to do. Sometimes this works and, well, sometimes it doesn’t. The positive results don’t necessarily make for a good glaze, the ones that don’t work, sometimes are dull, uninteresting or fail catastrophically. That is probably what makes this chemical tinkering fun and keeps me on my toes when it comes to glazing.

This firing had a half dozen pieces with a radically altered iron glaze that I have been working with. At first, a few of the tweaks were entirely random, then after a few firings I decided it was time to “engineer” an iron yellow glaze. It didn’t work over the temmoku as it used some of the iron and copper from the glaze and just came out like the iron glaze I was using. After thinking about it, I decided to try it over the clear glaze that I use. The first pod test was rather promising. In for a penny, in for a pound, I threw a group of pots this last cycle destined for the new Iron Yellow tests, glazed them up and waited for the results. The results are varied and show some promise and are directly related to the glaze thickness. Overall, it has given me some things to think about and certainly some ideas for the next firing.

Illustrated is a paddled stoneware water jar with clear and iron yellow glaze applied rather thin.The second pot illustrated shows two views of a stoneware bottle with hakeme slips under a clear glaze and the iron yellow glaze a bit thicker. It is immediately apparent, this is a really runny glaze, so glaze breaks will have to be planned into the pots I intend to use it on and secondly, it still maintains that Karatsu influence and style that I am currently playing with.



ROLLING HILLS

When I first started seriously studying Japanese art, I was instantly taken by the presence and baring of the Raku wares of Hon’ami Koetsu (1558-1637) and Raku Chojiro (?-1592). Over time I made every attempt to see and study the mainline Raku pieces which included several trips to see Raku Kichizaemon XV and the Raku Museum. What really fascinated me about these early masterpieces was the posture of the bowls and the undulating termination of the lip. As a burgeoning potter, I made various attempts to create a roving lip, reminiscent of roving hills through various means of removing clay, or throwing an irregular lip. The sheer simplicity of appearance is easily shattered as you try this for yourself.

Several years later, I found the answer to my lip conundrum in the oddest of places, a print gallery. At a show of prints (circa 1994), I was captivated by the vibrant, lush green mezzotints of rolling hills and meadows by Honda Kazuhisa (b. 1948). The way in which he layered his rolling hills gave me the idea to alter the lips on my teabowls. It seemed an odd place to find an answer to a pottery question, but by studying a variety of his prints, I could see the soft rolling hills transplanted to the lip of my bowl.

In time, the bowl shape itself has evolved to a simple and broad form, resembling a brandy snifter, prior to altering it. The lip is cut and smoothed with the body of the bowl being pushed slightly oval to present a broader face to the user, creating a good surface to drink from. This allows the bowl to be used from the intended front or the back. In the end, the bowl reminds me of a freshly harvested melon, cut open and enjoyed in the field. The soft curves of the bowl are a visual mobius loop, bringing the viewer’s eye round the bowl until it plunges into the form.

The first illustrated teabowl came out of my 2/24/11 firing and is glazed in my temmoku and partridge feather glaze and was applied to match and accentuate the curves of the lip. The above teabowl was made sometime last fall and is glazed in my haiyu glaze over a kushime decoration.

A Potter's Alchemy

When I first started making pots, I got some very sage advice from Bill Klock (at Plattsburgh State) and later from Dick Schneider at Cleveland State University, don’t be limited by technology. For me, this translated into understanding glazes and continuous testing of glazes and new materials. As the tech at Cleveland State, I had unlimited access to 2 updraft gas kilns and a bunch of electric kilns. The ranges varied from Cone 06, 01, 6 and 9/10 and at every opportunity, I had glaze pods or test bowls in each and every kiln. I was able to develop a palette of clay bodies, slips, underglazes and glazes for most temperature ranges and in oxidation and reduction.

Testing is the key to my moving forward. Having a wide range to draw from, I have been able to adapt to whatever clay body or temperature range that was available. This has been exceptionally important as we have moved all over and I have had seven studios and new suppliers each time. Adapting to what is at hand has been a mantra. In trying to adapt successfully to new clays and new suppliers, I have left 95% of my old recipes behind and have taken what little I have learned about formulas and materials and have come up with simple, few component recipes, many of which don’t need to be weighed to the gram.

Since my last move, I have concentrated on very simple glazes, preferring Oribe influenced glazes, temmoku and ash glazes. These are all 1/2/3 glazes and are simple to make. I work in a common cycle where I throw for a week, tool my pots, bisque and then glaze fire. I try to save at least a couple of hours a cycle to make up glaze tests to go in the glaze kiln when I fire it. The constant testing has resulted in my new “Karatsu” style glaze which uses unwashed soft wood ash without any colorants. It makes for an amber toned glaze when thin and a droozy greenish ash glaze when used thick. Both like to cool slowly. I am constantly testing new ash batches and trying to come up with new glazes that have a rich Japanese or Chinese appearance as well as those of medieval pottery.