PRACTICED DESIGN

If you think of Shino in a broad sense, one naturally thinks of Muji-Shino, Aka-Shino, Nezumi-Shino and E-Shino and the stellar pots and surfaces of modern masters like Arakawa Toyozo, Kato Tokuro, Hayashi Shotaro, Suzuki Osamu, Wakao Toshisada and Hori Ichiro among others. Though there are variations within the glazes used by these and other Mino specialists, the glazes are readily identifiable and have a similarity in surface, appearance and styles. On the other hand there is Oni-Shino which varies radically from the traditional Shino and has such wild variations even within the context of what is that glaze. Though a number of modern potters make what they term Oni-Shino, for simplicity sake, I am only referring to the works of Tsukigata Nahiko. Tsukigata's use of Shino and iron together with ash from the wood firing created a myriad of effects and surfaces that had never been seen before his creation and rarely since his death in 2006, though his son, Tsukigata Akihiko carries on the style and techniques rather well. It is the serendipitous portions of clay, Shino and iron glazes together with a balanced addition of ash that builds spectacular surfaces that are conveniently stirred together with the assistance of the fury of fire in his anagama wood kiln. Each and every pot a canvas and each and every piece radically different but intimately connected in an exciting body of work.

Illustrated is a detail shot of a large Tsukigata Nahiko mizusashi that I recently handled. The contrast between the iron, ash and pure translucent Shino is quite astounding but the real standout variation is the state of the iron which has made glaze runs down the surface of the pot. If you look carefully, you see thousands of iron crystal speckles looking like copper filings in a rich Japanese lacquer as if painted intentionally on the pot. As you turn the pot and catch light from various light sources, the surface appears alive, moving and animated with what happens by inspired and well practiced design or fiery happenstance, though one can't thoroughly dismiss a determined potter's spirit either. I can't exactly say I am surprised at the rich variation in this pot or others by Tsukigata Nahiko, but I can say, I am constantly amazed by them.

"How ridiculous and how strange to be surprised at anything which happens in life." Marcus Aurelius

BLUE MONDAY XXI

I put together this slideshow from pictures I had taken some time ago, the bottle/vase is a Persian influenced piece, toruko-ao style by Kato Kenji. The vivid foliate underglaze decoration reminds me of both Persian tiles and illustrated manuscripts of a time long ago. This is a simple pot with a streamlined form created by panels along the surface that were made to decorate. I am always impressed by the attention to detail and all the effort that goes in to each and every pot by Kato Kenji, despite size, form or surface, he tried to create vivid and animated pots every time he sat at the wheel and later when putting brush to clay. I hope that sentiment is better understood through this slideshow.

NARUMI

Narumi-Oribe is one of the more playful styles of Oribe where instead of a white background a reddish one is used in its place. Over the reddish background the use of iron, black and white pigments are used to decorate the surface giving way to a great number of designs in playful, whimsical and representational depictions and it is possible the style originated from a particular type of textile design and decoration from the 16th and 17th century. I find this style very engaging as it really does have an animated and whimsical feeling which can be so eloquently seen in the modern pottery of Suzuki Goro and Ikeda Syugo. While getting ready for a kiln firing recently I decided to make up a quick narumi test by mixing red iron and titanium together which I added to a thinned down porcelain slip. The resulting image shows the test which was also over painted in white slip and black pigment and glazed over in my alkaline clear while the rest of the bowl was glazed in an iron rich Oribe. Though there is always room for improvement, the appearance came out rather well for such a spur of the moment indulgence.

ALL THAT GLITTERS II

Big and beautiful, this large porcelain tsubo is by pioneering potter, Ono Hakuko. Based on an ancient Chinese technique she learned from Kato Hajime, this melon form tsubo has vertical ridges that divide the form up with panels of gold filling in between each divide. The pot is covered in one of Ono's characteristic yellow glazes that accentuates both the gold foil and the simple noble form. It has been written that she spent over five years perfecting the Sung inspired kinsai technique and no potter before , during or after her has become as synonymous with this particular style. This is likely due in part  to her intuitive use of decoration and space and the unique feel, or atmosphere that her pieces illicit through years of countless experiments and trial and error. There is a wonderful narrative created on and below the surface of her pots that show how uniquely suited Ono Hakuko was to a style based on the past and yet so skillfully displayed and modern in her adept hands.

SHINO

After posting the Arakawa Toyozo Shino mizusashi last week, I remembered that somewhere I had another illustration of a similar design on a scroll painting. Illustrated is the image painted in ink from a mounted scroll, kakejiku by Arakawa. The image is a simple Shino chawan with a casual landscape decorating the bowl with the caption that reads; SHINO. It is unclear why the simple caption, but having seen a number of his scroll, several of this design and even more of his Shino chawan, this image is the epitome of Shino as the scroll clearly states.

"and when I think of the Momoyama, the first thing which floats to my mind is shino. If I think about shino, than Mino comes to mind. It seems as though shino has become rather famous."  Arakawa Toyozo

See this blog post for a previous version of the same image;

http://albedo3studio.blogspot.com/2011/09/chawan-scroll.html

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.)

WE ARE STARDUST

I spent the afternoon tooling pots on and off the wheel today while listening to a cd I made with some great 70s classics from Cat Stevens to CSNY and Joni Mitchell and thought to share the moment with two versions of one of the greatest and most pivotal songs of the 1970s, WOODSTOCK written by Joni Mitchell and preformed by her and another version by CSNY. Enjoy.

Joni Mitchell - WOODSTOCK

CSNY - WOODSTOCK

TOO MUCH GAS

I have been making a thickish white slip out of my porcelain slurry for a while now with a touch of soda ash and frit and find myself having a problem with too much gas being released during the firing and sometimes (?) causing pinholes. Since the slurry comes right out of the bucket as is, I have been playing around with ways to help eliminate the problem with mixed results and in one case the slip shivers off the pot after the glaze firing. Using smaller test rings I have made a few alterations and now fire the bisque a bit hotter and for a longer period of time. The last test batch showed promise so I threw a large teabowl this morning that will be my next step following the tested procedure. I also decided to go with a hakeme decoration as that seems to compound the pinholing problem so we will see what happens once the bowl is tooled, dried, bisque, and glaze fired. The more you change things the more they change! Should have paid more attention  to the philosophical concept of cause and effect and how it applies to chemistry, physics and pottery.

"In everything we ought to look to the end."  Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695)

SUPERSIZED

I recently saw a video from a Japanese TV show where they show a huge chawan made during the Meiji period, it was about two feet in diameter and it got me thinking again about volume and scale in relationship to chadogu, but chawan in particular. Though two feet is just a bit large for a chawan, the o-buri super sized Hagi chawan of Miwa Kyusetsu XI (Jyusetsu) spring to mind. Mostly made in last two decades of his life, some of Miwa's chawan are positively huge, what exactly is the intent? Do these chawan transcends mere function and practicality to be conceptual vessels or more a statement about chawan than necessarily being chawan themselves? I have seen a few of these pots in person, beyond the aspects of function, these pots seem infused with pure masculinity and bravado, sculpture intended for use and aesthetic appreciation. In a magazine somewhere, I have a photo of a Kyusetsu chawan on display in the tokonoma, as a basin with a flower floating in the bowl filled with water and in another book there is a Oni-Hagi teabowl that measures 21.8cm in diameter where the average chawan comes in somewhere around 12.5cm. Functional vessel, sculpture or purely an object for appreciation, I wonder if he didn't make them like this, simply because he wanted to and he could.

As I continue to contemplate  size, scale and volume, besides Miwa Kyusetsu, both Tsukigata Nahiko and Kumano Kuroemon come  to mind. For Tsukigata, the "bushi" (Samurai warrior) ideal would seem to be part of his motivation for creating such large and powerful chawan, but for Kumano, I have often suspected that his large chawan are created at such a scale simply to match the ferocity and intensity of the firing process where the pots and potter are pushed to the brink. As I survey his large chawan I can get caught up in fantasy and imagine such bowls in use by the likes of a Sumo Yokozuna (grand champion) or the Ogre of Mt. Oe (Shuten-Doji) should either partake of tea. Illustrated is a large Kuma-Shino chawan by Kumano Kuroemon. I took the picture with me holding the bowl for scale, I am 6'2" and wear and X-L glove for perspective and this bowl measures in at just over 16.5cm, I think the size of the pot is apparent. Though I have heard Kumano's works described as grotesque (in form and scale) by some, to me there is a brutal, honest beauty to these pots. Their stories and encounters with unheard of temperatures and firings are permanently fused within their surfaces and forms. There are few potters who decide to work at this scale and even fewer who can pull it off but Kumano alone has become synonymous with chawan (and spirit) that are larger than life.

CLOSE CALL

Illustrated is a picture of the bottom of a covered jar, the pot was glazed first in temmoku and then in my runny red iron glaze and is what is known as a close call. It is immediately apparent that the glaze is rather runny and if you are going to dance with the devil, best to build in a glaze trap just above the foot to slow down the momentum of the molten glaze. The other thing that shows up well in the picture is the glaze runs and thins down, collecting to create a crystalline like surface of mostly pure iron with reflective speckles scattered among the glaze runs. This effect shows up rather brilliantly in bright direct light or in sunlight and gives more depth to the glazed surface. This is obviously another one of those unpredictable happenings which makes working with these glazes all the more interesting, each pot comes out with its own individual version of the same two glazes.