Illustrated is a Shino
chawan with a rather adventurous appearance and quite the story to tell. At
first glance the surface almost has a marbled look to it but after further
study it is a rich interplay between layers of the feldspathic Shino glaze over
a bold red iron slipped surface. The surface paints a landscape that calls to
mind tall snow covered mountains or even glaciers melting their way to the foot
of the bowl. The iron ring around the mouth frames in the landscape and creates
a certain amount of tension between the top and bottom of the Momoyama influenced chawan calling to
mind a bold keshiki and an even more dynamic adventure. Ever good chawan should
evoke some memory of a time or place in one's life, tell a story (or two) or at
the very least create a new experience that the viewer is not likely soon to
forget. I think this powerful Aka-Shino chawan by Tamaoki Yasuo does just that
and then some.
When I first set up my
marketplace on the web, my expectation was to sell some of the pottery I made
as well as to find new homes for pots that I had collected to study. From the
beginning I realized I couldn't keep every pot that I bought and the thought
was to buy pieces that I wanted to learn from and in some other way would leave
an impression on me and consequently, my work. What I didn't expect was that
fellow collectors, friends and even customers would ask me to try to sell pots
that had for any number of reasons, no longer suited the collector or
collection. This has undoubtedly been a wonderful fringe benefit of the
website. Over the years I usually see a good handful of pots a month that pass
through my hands and go on to new collectors, collections and even the occasional
private or public collection. It is quite enjoyable to have new pots come by that
I can study and as the pieces don't cost me anything, the price is always
right.
Illustrated is a rather well
fired Iga vase by the late Furutani Michio. This is a pot that was bought from
a Japanese dealer and over time, the collector concluded the piece was not
quite right for his collection so it came (and went) by me and it was very
rewarding to get the opportunity to handle it. The form is quite strong with a
slight lean forward to its posture due to the dramatic lobes and intense
firing. The color of the liquid ash is rather elegant despite its definite
bravado. Quite frankly, this vase has a wide array of effects creating a vivid
landscape that is exceptionally well suited to the form; knowing how adept
Furutani Michio was at both creating form and their strategic placement in the
kiln, how could it have been otherwise.
Illustrated is a simple
molded vase by Mashiko legend and Ningen Kokuho; Hamada Shoji. This piece was
first molded and then had trails of slip applied as only the master could do
and finally had pigment brushed vertically at various points to highlight the
areas of pure white slip. The pot was then loaded and fired in a salt kiln
creating this subtle but unique surface which in this case is covered in an
extremely fine pebbled texture, likely fired somewhere in the back of the kiln,
the front reserved for Hamada's best work and tea wares. Though hundreds of
these pots were made, each is separate and distinct due to the individuality of
not only the slip and brushwork but the effects and variations created in the
salty atmosphere. I am particularly attracted to the slip decoration at the far
left where the pigment has gone from a subtle blue at the top to a soft, spring
like green at the bottom. I think the surface would keep even the casual viewer
engaged in a conversation about all the distinct possibilities that salt has to
offer.
I was digging through images
at the request of a client and came across this photo of a bowl I made some
time back. The saffron neriage teabowl
was originally photographed using either a white or black background with a
tungsten light source with a tungsten correcting "filter" in the
digital camera and once I shut off the lights, the sun was beginning to set and
was streaming into the room, just enough to highlight the bowl and shed an
alternative perspective as to how the piece looks in various conditions. Though
it will be somewhat redundant for me to say so, it never ceases to amaze me how
a pot can look so different depending on the source or light or the placement
of the piece. I remember being at a fellow collectors home and seeing a modest
Tsujimura Shiro Iga pot on a bookshelf and then he pulled it down and placed it
in the middle of a small Chinese style table and it was an entirely
differentpiece with a greater sense of
commanding the space. I am not saying the various lighting makes my pots any
better, but with this type of atmosphere, it certainly doesn't hurt any.
After almost seven years of
faithful service, my inexpensive Casio Exilim digital camera finally gave up
and expired. Though with its demise, I felt somewhat rushed to acquire another
camera, I impressed back into service my old Sony Mavica until a good and
proper choice could be made. I spent a fair amount of time researching what
would be a good replacement camera and after trying to use the Mavica and
realizing it was no longer suitable, I needed to make a choice. I ended up
ordering a Canon, 16 megapixel SX520HS. I have been using it and putting it
through its paces and the photos and videos are light years ahead of my old
Casio. I am still trying to get used to all of the setting and am still
struggling with over lighting images, but overall the shots are pretty good and
the videos, even from a real distance have proved to be quite satisfying. It
will take some time to get used to a camera with more than just a few settings,
but as time moves on, so doesn't technology and a necessity to keep up.
Illustrated is a close-up of
a Kimura Morikazu yuteki guinomi. I was quite impressed with the macro features
of the camera and rather pleased with the ability to capture crisp detail
shots. The individual cells of the oil-spots are clear with the myriad of other
effects rendered far easier to study than in a simple 1:1 photo. The detail
shot shows the complexity of the glaze and the miniature universe captured in
the surface that is hard to understand without the guinomi in hand. When you
think about the size of the guinomi and the potential of the detail shot, it is
rather amazing how easy it is to capture detail with the simple click of a
button; whether the pot stays here or goes on to a new home, the photos act as
permanent reference to what the appearance of the pot had to say in crystal
clear pixels.
There is that saying, you'll
always remember your first and after this weekend, I admit, it is undeniably
true. This past weekend I was looking through several boxes that had been
packed since all the way back to our move from Cleveland. I was looking for
some elephant ear sponges when I came across a bowl well wrapped up in sheets
of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Inside was the very first glaze test I had made
dating back to 1989 while at Plattsburgh State. Not really knowing any better,
I went to the library and using a formula from a ceramics book from 1948(?) with a
few suggestions from Bill Klock, I made up 2000grams of a glaze I had no clue
would work or even what the temperature range was. I glazed three pieces of which this
shallow teabowl is one and loaded them in to the kiln which was a cone 9/10
firing.
Once the kiln cooled down
sufficiently, I snuck out my tests like a thief in the night and was beyond
surprised; the glaze worked but looked entirely different on each piece
depending where it was in the kiln. This bowl was fired near the cone pack
where the kiln had reached a soft ten and as one can tell, the glaze was
beginning to decide to be on the shelf rather than the pot. Being the first of
many thousands of tests, I thought that this was going to be easy if everything
works like this each and every time but I was about to learn a myriad of things
from "the first". I took the time to bask in the momentary success of
glaze testing marveling at the wonderful fat glaze rolls, ethereal texture and
color and the sheer fact that a handful of chemicals mixed about with water
achieved what at the time I thought looked a bit like a "museum"
glaze on a terribly bad teabowl. The gauntlet had been thrown down and I was on
the road of testing, forever etched in my being, I am amazed that that simple
memory and experience is as fresh today as it was 25 years ago, time surely
flies.
Illustrated is a Persian
blue koro by Kato Kenji. The lyrical and wispy vertical decoration punctuated
by a modest pedestal foot with piercing goes all around the foot and lid
creating a simple yet practical vessel. Capturing the essential elements of
medieval Persian pottery it is neither bogged down in the formality or ritual of
its purpose welcoming in the viewer with a casual attitude. The decoration, standing majestically, evokes a natural and simple
atmosphere while the pierced lid gives the form a feeling of perpetual motion fulfilling
its distinct and aromatic function tying together the senses of sight and smell; calling to mind
a favorite field or garden of past or present.
There
are a lot of pots out there that have a rather fragile nature to them but this
mizusashi is certainly not one of them. Made by Suzuki Goro, this E-Shino
mizusashi is rugged, bold and eminantly solid in both its construction and
appearance. There is a tremendous strength to the works of Suzuki Goro that are
usually balanced with a casual sense of playfulness and experimentation; as I
mentioned before there is a uniqueness to each of his pots, even those made in
series.
I
made this short slideshow to give the viewer a fuller persective of the
articulation, volume and presence of the pot. Too often a single stationary
image or even five or six pictures just dosen't give enough detail, hopefully,
this may help fill in the blanks.
Oribe by its very nature has
a history of playfulness to it dating all the way back to the Momoyama era and
when you combine that with the whimsy and creative force of a modern potter you
can easily hit a homerun. Illustrated is a playful yet dynamic mizusashi by
Suzuki Goro that is a near definition of what Oribe (GOribe) is all about. The
radically textured mizusashi is cloaked in varying hues of green due to the
complicated topography of the piece while the form appears carefully balanced
and stacked with ever so casual lugs applied to either side and topped with a
lid with a visually dominating and highly functional lid and knob. Every pot
from Suzuki Goro is a surprise, each unique and conversant in a multitude of
visual languages running through his body of work is wit, whimsy
and a playfulness that is not often seen in ceramics that find their foundation
in the art of the Momoyama era.
मिट्टीकातन, मस्तीकामन, क्षणभरजीवन, मेरापरिचय
"A body of clay, a mind
full of play, a moment's life; that's me."Harivansh Rai Bachchan (1907-2003)
I recently received an
unboxed chawan that was sent to me to try to uncover who had made it. The bowl
was bought in Shigaraki in the mid-1980s and the owner had absolutely no recollection
of the maker. It is a stout and well fired bowl but the mark was entirely covered
over in natural ash glaze rendering it next to impossible to read. I had it on
my desk, in front of the computer and I was using a 20 power loop to try to get
a read on the mark and was getting no where so I pulled out my digital camera
and set it on the highest resolution and just as I was to take the picture, my
current research assistant and pottery helper decided he wanted a shot at it himself.
In a proverbial, "I am ready for my close up" moment, instead of the
bowl I ended up with an in your face photo of Khan the curious. Though he
didn't help me uncover the maker, the use of the hi-rez picture did and I was
able to determine the chawan was made by Furutani Churoku. It would have been
much easier if I had the box or bio, but getting to the bottom of the matter was
still made just a bit more fun with the aid of an inquisitive and curious
feline.
"There are two means of
refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats." Albert Schweitzer
(1875-1965)
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