EXOTIC CAMOUFLAGE

Looking a bit more like the exotic camouflage of some far away mammal, fish or lizard; this style of yuteki glaze is not something that you see every day. The jewel inspired spots burst out of the yellowish ground creating isolated universes of iridescence and shimming crystals which under the right lighting brings the chawan to life, creating a mysterious and contemplative surface that very few can achieve. Created by oilspot specialists and student of Kimura Morikazu, Sasaki Yuzuru spent a number of years under his master's tutelage as well as studying at the Kyoto ceramic Research Institute before establishing his own studio/kiln in Fukui (1979) allowing him to focus on this pursuit and creating pots and surfaces that almost defy logic and showcasing a long term dedication to his craft and art. In certain respects as I study this pot it appears like I am staring at the handiwork of a pointillist master who has place every spot exactly where it should be with the rich dark lip and highlighted band of blue-grey iridescent spots running around the center circumference of the bowl. At the end of the day it is the experience and his years of making, testing and firing that has created this exotic chawan surely setting him apart from his contemporaries and making it easier still to say, "Sasaki Yuzuru made this".

LAYERS UPON LAYERS

Illustrated is a wonderful little saidei (layered clay) kogo by the late Miyashita Zenji (1939-2012) created by building up layers upon layers of colored clay on his ceramic canvas. Having grown up around clay, his father Miyashita Zenju (1901-1968) was a veteran porcelain potter and glaze magician, Zenji discovered his saidei technique and literally wrapped his evocative and creative forms in his multi-colored surfaces and though this kogo is simple in form it creates a lyrical surface that speaks to distant and exotic landscapes to destination far off both real and imagined. Miyashita's use of color and texture in balance on his forms illustrates a potter's intimate knowledge of his clay, form and material as well as an evolving aesthetic as his works and ideas matured. Though small in scale and at times easy to overlook, this saidei kogo is an excellent and mature example of Miyashita's oeuvre and speaks about a purity and honesty of a potter's vision.

SOFT SQUARE

If I am set in to auto-pilot, I can sit at the wheel, music blaring in the background and throw round thing one after another, obviously, the wheel spinning in a circle has something to do with that. Though I enjoy round pots, now and again I find the need to break the form given from the wheel head from throwing and altering the piece either with a few subtle gestures or at times by radically altering and even reassembling the clay. In this particular case, I took a couple of low serving bowls and just moved them a bit to form soft squares, most noticeable at the mouth and rims. This is another of those "no rocket science" moments where just upsetting the form a bit changes the piece quite a bit and also adds somewhat to the actual use of the piece. As you can see the exteriors have had thick white slip applied which has been combed and once bisque will likely be glazed in the Ao+ and Oribe. I know it really doesn't seem like a big difference but by squaring the forms just a bit it breaks that rhythm of not only the throwing but the aesthetic outcome as well.

NOT ONE THING

I will not get involved in the meaning or implications of this Zen Buddhist expression but it reads; HONRAI MUICHIMOTSU,  a single line calligraphy that the great Zen pioneer Hakuin Ekaku and many other liked to brush. This particular scroll is by the highly versatile painter, calligrapher, sculptor and potter, Tsukigata Nahiko. Brushed in a thick and bold black ink, the easily identifiable calligraphy stands out against the stark white paper which is punctuated in three spots with the read seals of the artist. The mounts are very well done but are simple in that they don't add any conflict with the ink though they frame the painting to the fullest. The scroll is hung in a spot which the owner has "designated" their Western tokonoma and on a lacquer stand there sits a simple, bluish white Yi Dynasty style 20th century Korean vase which happens to be in-between its floral garnish at the moment. In receiving this photo I am reminded how easy it is to create small accents of Japan within an otherwise thoroughly Western environment.

TANG AGAIN

There is an old misconception that the drink, Tang was invented as a result of the NASA space program but the truth is it was around before manned space flight but its association with NASA certainly made it quite popular and a must have household item. As for this  exhibited Tang influenced Sancai chaire, though it is not necessary a household item it could be a focal point of any tea ceremony most pottery collections.

Made by Kato Kobei VII, son of Ningen Kokuho Kato Takuo, this full and rounded chaire was thrown out of a fine white clay and then glazed in an alkaline based clear glaze with accents of copper and cobalt added to the surface which became droozy and melted down the pot. The fine incised line which circles the pot acts as a strong focal point especially where the rich green and blues become a bit deeper in the recess capturing the eyes attention. Kato Kobei VII comes to this style, inherited from the vast experience, experimentation and interests of his father creating works in the Persian and Tang Sancai styles which bare a resemblance to his teacher but shows a careful and studied approach to the work which defines the pottery of a unique voice in not only form but application, design and decoration. There are few potters carrying on this pursuit and this chaire serves as another brick to shore up this distinct tradition.

PLAYFUL

I threw this vase using a rather iron rich clay which I make myself, it is a bit labor intensive but I enjoy the way the clay throws and also what it looks like once fired. In this case I made a tall vase with lugs and covered the body in a bright white slip which was combed and then glazed over in one of my Oribe glazes. This Oribe glaze has a bit less iron than normal to allow the contrast between the bright body and darker, unslipped clay to stand out against each other. The indents at the base of the pot are from where I pick the piece up directly off the wheel head once thrown an accent I like and can be seen on many of the pots that I enjoy from Bizen, Shigaraki and Iga. The neck and mouth of the pot were man handled a bit to get them to warp which adds to the less than perfect and casual approach I was after while making the pot and hopefully come off as a bit less contrived and more playful and natural in feel. I enjoy making pots like this that come off the wheel nearly complete and in the throwing I can just shut down, let the music play and let the clay go exactly where it needs to.

I would also like to take a moment to wish a Happy Fourth of July to all that wish to embrace the spirit!

PERSPECTIVE

perspective; pər-ˈspek-tiv, the capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance

Every now and again my wife will look at a pot up on my blog and tell me that I need to add something to help define the size and volume of a pot. On eBay I have seen pop cans, cigarette lighters and packs, dollar bills and a host of other daily objects but I just don't find my way to using these objects, I would rather let the photo imply the size and let the viewer work out the mental math and imagery. In my years of making pots, loading kilns and making commissions I think I have become rather adept at understanding volume in the abstract until every once and a while a pot will show up that just defies the actual dimensions and the scale and volume catch me off guard.

Illustrated is a pot, well actually two pots that arrived here within a few days of each other by sheer happenstance and an example of not being fully prepared for the size of a piece. What you are looking at is a good size Shino chawan over 13cm across by Matsuzaki Ken inside a rather large Shino O-tsubo by the same potter which I thought may illustrate the point of perspective. The chawan was carefully placed inside the o-tsubo which are both glazed in the same fashion, a thin coat of Shino with a much thick, viscous layer of Shino being applied with the potter's hand and raked and in the doing leaving swaths of almost pure white in his wake. The two pots from different sources were both wood fired and have areas of various other effects across the surface including rich, iridescent yohen and ash dusted about the surfaces and interior of the chawan. The other interesting thing about these pieces is that both of them were bought out of exhibitions in Japan and are both illustrated in the accompanying catalogues. Maybe my wife is right, sometimes using the right object to show scale and volume is exactly what is called for.

OCHRE & IRON

When I first tried my hand at majolica glazes back in the very early 90s  I spent some time at the library where I came across a book by Alan Caiger-Smith entitled, LUSTRE POTTERY (1985) and I decided to try my hand at reduction lustres. I had some reasonable success with the actual surfaces and lustres though the pots weren't very good and the decoration left something to be desired but I was achieving the effects that I was after. Simply put my biggest problem with working out this technique was that I couldn't get anyone else interested in reduction firing their terra cotta majolica pots so I had to fill a 40 cubic foot kiln all by myself just to run my tests, it was a rough, hot summer. I finally decided that what I needed to do was to take the same principles and apply it to cone 9/10 firings as the testing would go much quickly considering I was firing up to four glaze firings a week. Over time I was able to adapt the reduction lustres idea to high fire and used Shino glazes as the bases to work on.

I got to thinking about the lustres while having an email exchange recently and went looking for any slides/ photos of the Shino and lustre pots and after looking through quite a few slides realized I had neither photographic or actual examples of the work. After thinking about this for some time I remembered that I had put away a single teabowl I had made while working at Wesleyan Potters, one of maybe a dozen or so that I had glazed in my old Shino glaze and used an ochre and iron luster on. The bowl illustrated is the only lustre and Shino bowl that I have left and though at first glance the surface looks like it is just decorated in a caramel toned overglaze, as the bowl moves about the iridescent lustre pops and is high lighted by the differing light sources. You can see little glimpses of the lustre effect in the overall teabowl shot but it is more apparent in the close up detail photo and perhaps with time my photographic skills may get a bit better at capturing the surface to give a fuller account of just how playful the surface really is.

NOT THE DRINK II

I found this pot recently on the ubiquitous auction site and will say that it was worth the risk bidding as the price was certainly right. I mention the risk as over the years I have looked at a number of Japanese pots made in the Persian and Sancai styles that in person were just lifeless and lacked any real presence, I am happy to report that is not the case with this low, basin style mizusashi by Fukushima native, Kataoka Tetsu (B.1952). Using a slightly off-white clay body, the basin was glazed in a clear glaze that is thicker and a bit milky on the interior and then carefully added pigments based on historical archetypes that flowed down the form in various hues of golden yellow, amber and rich greens. I find the potter's choice to leave some simple evidence of his throwing a wonderful choice that adds character, movement and a bit more surface enhancement to the pot making for a rich and lively piece. On a personal note, we have had the mizusashi out on a shelf where it is lite by a variety of light sources both artificial and natural creating a piece that changes from hour to hour and was a risk well taken. As the old knight may have commented; "you chose wisely".

STELLAR IMPACT

I have always been fascinated by the night's sky from an early age and spending time at the local planetarium growing up and now I wait anxiously for the stellar images provided by NASA and elsewhere from the Hubble, Cassini and other sources. Given this interest, it is easy to see why I find small universes and celestial bodies in the forms of pots and their surfaces which is so often the case with the pieces that I am drawn to. A while back I was able to handle and photograph a large Shigaraki tsubo and put the jpegs in a folder and skimmed over them for further study at a later date as I was still in the process of digesting what I had just handled and their they sat. I was looking through an EHD that I have and went to the tsubo file and was struck by this detail shot which was not taken with any other motive than to capture the surface where the ferocity and velocity of the firing had impacted. The image immediately called to mind a planetary surface where a stellar impact  had sent the debris, in this case, liquid ash running from the collision zone, the face of the pot which was fired at a slight angle which has distributed the ash in every direction. It is exactly this type of photo, detail shot that reminds me exactly why I take so many photos of each pot that comes my way as serendipity and not photographic skill will from time to time capture an image that speaks volumes about a pot and conjures up all kinds of memories and associations that words alone rarely can.