T'ZU CHOU

Our first contact with the work of Ochiai Miyoko (b.1946), who lives and works outside of Kyoto in Shiga-ken was back in 1983 through the JAPANESE CERAMIC TODAY exhibition. In the exhibition was a small T'zu Chou style tsubo with a lively black fish, detailed with sgraffito on a nearly pure white background, the piece and effect was quite elegant with an aire of nobility thrown in for good measure. Over the years we saw her work here and there including several pieces on our trips to Japan in the 1990s but it wasn't until we first hopped on the internet super-highway that we found our first Ochiai that was for sale; in fact one of our very first purchases, a T'zu Chou floral vase over the pc was with Robert Yellin back in the late 90s.

Flash forward to the present day and we recently stumbled on to a rather attractive Ochiai bud vase with the very same decoration as was on the Kikuchi tsubo in the 1983 exhibition. Standing about six inches tall this ko-tsubo has a rather graphic sense to the decoration and the pot is both delicate and well thrown with a small, raised foot. I took a number of photos of the piece and built this short video slideshow to try to capture the volume and presence of the pot, hopefully the video will paint a fuller picture.

VARIETAS

Illustrated is another Shino mallet vase by Mino veteran, Yamada Seiji. Though similar to one from a previous post, this form is far more sturdy and purposeful as if it is an exact copy of a well used and weathered wood mallet that has seen years and years of serious and abusive work. Yamada created this piece with a  short neck and simple tapered body complimenting each other quite well and making for a very natural and cohesive shape. Covered in a lustrous Shino glaze with alluring areas of blushing seen around the base and is complimented with a faint yuzu style texture and interconnecting fissures created by the glaze tension. The pot is finished off with a slightly chamfered foot which helps raise the pot off the ground and making it much more pleasing to the eye. The more mallet form vases I see the greater number of details unfold making for a form that never gets old and is a balance of both simplicity and variety.

The previous Yamada Seiji mallet post can be found here;

http://albedo3studio.blogspot.com/2015/02/seiji-shino.html

SIDELINES

I find myself sitting on the sidelines as I watch a friend, an advanced collector, decide it is time to sell off his collection. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the collection is something of a rarity having been cohesively and thoughtfully constructed around the ideals of the revival of the Momoyama aesthetic. Pots by many of the most important and elite potters of the 20th century assembled are now to go the way of the clouds; they form, they come and go, they build like a great storm and then are dispersed by the winds in all directions. I can in no way take any credit for this amazing collection though we had discussed each and every piece, prior to purchase at some length by email and hour after hour of phone time. There is a sadness, a true melancholy; once at home within the companionship of each other, conducting their own complex visual symphony, once gone, each piece will end up as a singular expression of the potter's art. In my time around Japanese art, I have seen a number of good collections built, bought, sold and dispersed, but my feeling regarding this collection is that it was a unique expression of discipline, conviction and an idea that paid homage to a particular aesthetic based on a singular idea as it related to chadogu.

Illustrated is a fiery red Aka-Shino chawan by Suzuki Osamu from the mentioned collection. It is big and bold and the decoration, glaze and form are wonderfully complimentary of each other creating a perfect chawan. This piece has special meaning to me as I was fortunate to handle it at exhibition back in the early 1990's during a stay in Japan. It is large and powerful and just about as good a pot as one can imagine from this potter and the modern Mino tradition.

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

10,000 HOURS

There is that old adage that it takes 10,000 hours to master something or become an expert at it. I wonder how that relates to a potter with a piece of bamboo cutting the kodai on a pot, is it relative to hours or number of pots? If you think about how many pots a potter makes, especially a Japanese potter who hand cuts the feet on many of his pieces, how many pieces did it take to get good at mastering what seems to be such a simple task that is in fact, exceptionally difficult? The illustration is a video grab from a video of Suzuki Osamu cutting a foot out of fairly wet clay with only a sharpened piece of wood. His cuts are direct, fast and well practiced, almost to a formula, but if you have seen many feet on his pots, it is obvious each and every one has its own personality and distinctness while relating back to his body of his work. As I watch his video, I ask myself, does it ever get as easy as he makes it appear?

USAGI-BLUE

Though firmly rooted in the year of the horse, this wonderful rabbit okimono is worth a look none the less. The rabbit is ever-present in Japanese art as the lunar hare and a number of other depictions and according to the zodiac, one major characteristic of those born in the year of the rabbit is creativity. Made by Sodeisha co-founder and exceptionally creative ceramic artist, Suzuki Osamu (1926-2001), this pale blue seihakuji rabbit is one of a number of zodiac influenced pieces he made sometime after 1969. Though best known for his powerful, abstracted sculptural works, Suzuki left a large number of smaller and very intimate ceramic works which have little to do with function in the strictest sense, though objects of playfulness, enjoyment and contemplation are function enough. This particular piece is patterned after usagi-ningyo dolls that can be found in and around Kyoto, some with drawstring interiors filled with flagrant incense. Made in multiples, these were simple in design, execution and glazing and flawlessly capture a sense of whimsy and spirit of the ubiquitous Japanese rabbit.

SHINO TSUBO

Illustrated is a rich black ink calligraphy for the kanji, TSUBO by Ningen Kokuho for Shino pottery; Suzuki Osamu (b. 1934). Unlike those of Kato Tokuro, this tsubo is brushed in a more direct and literal manner in which the character is easily read and closer to the ideal than some I have seen. Though easily read, it is animated and expressive and glimpses the nature of the tsubo in a classical and purposeful manner. Over the years I have seen a thousand or more calligraphies by potters for the kanji, tsubo and it has become very clear that you can usually see a direct correlation between the potters ink and his clay, this shikishi is no exception.