MYTHIC

Illustrated is a handbuilt beaked pitcher I made a long while back, I recently found the slides and had them converted to digital. Relying on a bit of myth with some liberties taken in terms of the details, the pitcher depicts the tale of Icarus, portrayed as a female on the one side and Europa and the Bull on the other, and yes I know that Zeus was portrayed as a white bull but black worked better for the graphics! I have always been rather fascinated with world mythology and it routinely makes its way onto my pots in a wide variety of depictions from representational to abstract. In this example, the fully functional pitcher presented two large panels to paint on owing some homage to ancient Greek and Roman fresco. At the end of the day, this was a fun pot to build and even more fun to paint.

Here is a classic from the very late 1980s; Michael Penn NO MYTH (1989)

 

YU-TV

Here is another short NHK promotional video for a special on Bizen Ningen Kokuho; Fujiwara Yu (1932-2001). Following in his father's rather large footsteps, Fujiwara Yu produced a large number of exceedingly well fired pots as well as a body of large tsubo of varying forms as well. Enjoy the video, a great place to brush up on your Nihongo at the same time.

THOSE FAMILIAR ARCHES

Cloaked in a soft, vellum like Persian blue glaze the all too familiar repeated arches design remind one of an ancient cathedral or Roman temple from ages long past. Combining the modern skills of the potter, together with an ancient tradition and design, the vase stands calmly while evoking a myriad of associations, something ever present in the works of the late Kato Kenji. His works have a sense of endurance and longevity that is not always captured by potters. Like the archetypes, I always sense a dependence on the past while looking far into the future using elements and techniques of a time gone by; Kato Kenji stands on the shoulders of numerous potters who laid the foundations for a noble tradition that has made its way to the 21st century.

T&A

Illustrated is a T&A (thrown and altered) ishime style teapot with my "landscapeman" design incised and inlaid around the piece. The pot started life as a simple cylinder that was then altered by making it oval, darting the clay and reassembling the form as it appears. Once assembled, I put it on the wheel and created the mouth and short neck to accept a thrown lid. The spout, lid, foot and handle have all been glazed in a shiny transparent black glaze to add contrast to the piece and the interior has a clear liner glaze as well. I would love to claim this was entirely my idea, but it actually stems from a TV show I saw while in Japan. On the show, a woman took a sheet of paper, made it into a cylinder and then made a few cuts and a few moments later, there was a ball. It only seemed natural that you could take the original idea and adapt it to clay, just waiting to be turned into a teapot.

KO-BIZEN

When I think about Bizen, there is modern Bizen and there is what is known as Ko-Bizen, which means, simply, "old Bizen". Though you can look at the term Ko-Bizen on face value, I tend to look at it as a tradition that set the standards, style, techniques, firing and quality for Bizen rather than just referring to pre-modern pottery. Pots today are definitely made in the Ko-Bizen tradition though they are modern pots, in essence they build on all that was old to continue that unbroken thread to the present day. For Kitaoji Rosanjin that was a great part of his pursuit of pottery, especially in his Bizen, Shigaraki, Iga, Oribe and Shino works. He would study the great works of times past to understand the nature, intent and spirit of those pieces and do all in his power to instill the same in his own work though allowing his voice to the surface of the pot. The illustrated Bizen chawan is certainly one of those works that straddles the temporal fence between the past and the present (at the time it was made). This streamlined, purposeful bowl  creates a powerful posture and is wonderfully colored with rich purple to brown fire color and a face and lip painted with ash, adding to the landscape of the pot. What Rosanjin managed to create is a chawan that absolutely speaks to the past while maintaining its place as a 20th century pot.

"That is why I turn to the works of the ancient masters and seek to read their hearts. Nothing makes me happier than to discover, little by little, that I can read the heart of some ancient potter - for I too want my work to be a reflection of the heart. When I succeed in creating a piece straight from the heart, I can't help slapping my knee and thinking "This is how it was for the ancients!" *

(* A quote from THE ART OF ROSANJIN  by Cardozo and Hirano)

O-JU-WAN

Illustrated is a chawan that belongs to a friend which I refer to as O-Ju-Wan, the big Ju bowl. This chawan was made by Shimizu Uichi (1926-2004) and is a Horai style bowl glazed in a rich black iron glaze with a frothy white laid over and then the kanji for Ju carved or inscribed into the surface. Working in his nobori-gama, Horai-yu, Shimizu created a wide variety of rich iron glazes from deep black iron saturated ones to celestial appearing kannyu celadon style seiji glazes with deep crazing creating worlds within their surfaces. This particular bowl has a lovely form with the Ju kanji dominating the face of the bowl intended to bring felicitations and longevity to both user and viewer. The playful interplay of glaze textures, inscribed decoration and clay body cloak the full round form of a generous and sturdy chawan well at home in hand or commanding a space as a reminder of the intent of both potter and pot; enjoy.

iii3

I am not sure why, but for me, the incised decoration and Oribe seem to go hand in hand. The way the glaze first breaks to a much lighter color only to fill that incised channel with a dark river of Oribe makes the technique very appealing. Though the idea of the incised line goes way back in pottery history, it is the work of Kohyama Yasuhisa, Koie Ryoji, Charles Counts and Aaron Bohrod that have been of the greatest inspiration and influence in what I do with the cut line. The technique is both primal and expressive, literal and obtuse and allows a potter direct access to the clay, cutting in to the surface and moving material as you go along. The other appeal is that spontaneity goes hand in hand with the directness of the technique, like ink on a fresh piece of paper, there is no going back, the line cut is the line that one lives with and there is a fair share of cast always and wasters along the route. Using a sharpened piece of bamboo as a tool, it takes practice to get gentle curves and small detail, but like all things worth the effort, it is only the first 10,000 hours that serve to get you where you are going.

Illustrated is a thrown stoneware bottle, tokkuri with an decoration loosely based on the orbit in some far off incised interstellar intersection of stars. In a way this decoration is an offshoot of my "landscapeman" design but it owes as much to the blackboards of science fiction scientists in old B movies as anything else. The Oribe glaze works well over the incised decoration and though not quite apparent in the photo, the surface has a slight iridescence to it. I have only one question, how is it possible that no one in the US is mining ceramic grade lepidolite?

JUN (NOT THE CAT)

On our very first trip to Japan in 1991 and on our first excursion out in Kyoto, we stumbled on to an exhibition of pots by Hara Kiyoshi (b.1936). There was a wide array of pots, some large and imposing temmoku tsubo with images of horses, birds, foliage and even a jar with a scene of giraffe eating from trees, all were wonderful pieces and in the midst of these pots were just two beautiful Chinese inspired pieces in a vivid Jun (Chun) style glazes. One piece was a 10" vase and the other a mizusashi with a small bird perched on the lid acting a knob. Breaking up the surface on the mizusashi were areas of a tannish colored accents on high spots and sharper lines where the Jun had run a bit thin and the pot had various rich purple areas that accented the near perfect blue of the pot.

Obviously inspired by the archetypes that date back to the Song Dynasty of ancient China, Jun-yao (Chun-yao), the pots of Hara Kiyoshi show the influence but not slavish dependence on the straw ash glazes made famous in the Jun kilns of Yuzhou. Having studied with both Ishiguro Munemaro and Shimizu U'ichi, both Ningen Kokuho and potters inspired by Chinese ceramics, the foundations of technical and aesthetic mastery were taught by the best. In 2005 Hara was also named Ningen Kokuho and carries on the proud tradition of specializing in iron glazes as did both of his masters. Illustrated is a lovely mizusashi similar to the one I saw back in 1991 and dating to around that time. The form and glazing is exceptional with the knob in this case being a ram one of the symbols of the Asian zodiac. What I find so compelling about the pot is that it seems puffed up and ready to burst and I fear that if you were to remove the lid, it would simply deflate; I think it is the tension that makes this pot so enjoyable.

OTSU-E

If you have been to Japan and traveled the "old Tokaido" highway from Kyoto to Tokyo, you will end up passing through Otsu, a small village just a few miles west of Kyoto. A charming village, I am sure known for a number of things, Otsu is best known for its synonymous omiyage (souvenirs) known as Otsu-e or Otsu pictures. This traditional mingei folkcraft has its origins in the late 17th century as omiyage sold along the old Tokaido (east sea road) highway route. The original designs were of Buddhist images for use in the home and over the years many of the designs became "comics or caricatures" for folk tales; Oni (no) Nembustsu, Yakko-machi, Benkei, Raiko, Fuji-Musume, gourd & catfish, cat & mouse, etc.. The designs of the Otsu-e became very popular gifts to bring when traveling east or west and are now best known for their humor and satire of beliefs of popular culture. Like Aesop's Fables, Otsu-e are based on lessons that are rooted in the origins of Buddhism as it made its way in to Japan around the Nara-jidai.

Having traveled this route a number of times on my way from Kyoto to Shigaraki, I had opportunity and motive to stop in Otsu and acquire some examples of Otsu-e from the current head of the best known Otsu-e families; Takahashi  (Bumpei) Shozan IV (b.1936). In many respects, the work of Shozan IV is now synonymous with Otsu-e and his portrayals of the numerous subjects, stories and fables are the modern classics and continuation of this satirical and allegorical folk art. Illustrated on the left is a small shikishi size painting of the Oni(no)Nembutsu design by Takahashi Shozan IV and one the right is a nice little teacup that I recently acquired with the same design on Kiyomizu wear in bright enamels signed by Shozan IV. The moral to the story, simply put is that if a "wicked" demon can repent, then anyone is capable of repentance and redemption a common core principle of Buddhism.

MEOTO

The term meoto for a set of his/her matched teacups (yunomi) comes from the ancient site, significant to Shinto in Ise Bay in Mie Prefecture. The site is known as Meoto-Iwa, the wedding rocks representing male and female perpetually linked by a length of straw rope, shimenawa. The rocks spring out of the water and are best seen during the summer months with Fuji out in the distance and the sun rising between them. The illustrated set of meoto yunomi are glazed in my lepidolite Oribe glaze over a rinka, lobed form with vertical strokes of black around the cups. There is something rather satisfying making sets that you know are going to be used, hopefully over a very long period of time.