MUGGING

I don't really like to make a lot of mugs, usually only to go with dinnerware and as commissions which I recently finished. I was asked to make a set of eight mugs in my Oribe glaze and we decided on black slip decoration to accentuate the forms. I have learned a lesson or two about making orders and when you need eight it is best to throw a few extras and in this case I made eleven and ended up with three extras as all the pieces made it out intact. Illustrated is one of the extra mugs, mugging for its close-up and showing off the decoration under the glaze as well as how I finished off the handle which included a "thumb-button" to make the piece function a bit easier. The mugs are all about 4.75" tall or so and are a good managable size considering if left on my own they probably would each end up holding a pint, I guess it doesn't hurt to have some guidelines.

UNUSUAL SIGHTING

Over the years I have seen a fair number of pots by Honiwa Rakunyu II, in fact, my wife and I had visited his studio/ kiln a number of times on our trips to Japan and to Shigaraki specifically. We still owe a debt of gratitude to Honiwa's daughter for her gracious offer to take us around Shigaraki on our first trip to the area while we were milling about in the rain. This brings me to the illustrated chaire, though I am always reluctant to use the term rare or rara avis, let's just say this little pot made for an unusual sighting. The Shigaraki chaire in this short video slideshow was made by Honiwa Rakunyu I, teacher of Rakunyu II who assumed the name in 1963 and given when it was made having the original shifuku and signed box make it quite a nice package.

I don't know a lot about Rakunyu I except to say that he fired using a noborigama at a time before the anagama was re-introduced to the valley and was made sometime prior to to 1960 but after WWII. I am struck by the casual and thin throwing with markings that circle the piece adding to a sense of motion that is then high lighted by a lightly colored rear and a dark, charcoal reduced face, like two distinct phases of the moon. The shoulder of the chaire likewise is nearly bisected by dark and light halves but is speckled with additional ash which has an amber brown appearance adding to the effects that bring life to the piece. I have seen only a handful of pottery by Honiwa Rakunyu I of which this is the only chaire but his pots have a rugged and determined sense of tradition and function to them and are easy to use and even easier to admire.

ALL ABOUT THE FORM

When I am looking at pots there are pieces that are decidedly all about the surface and glaze, a technique, painting or in this case being all about the form. Tall, elegant the surface finishes off the form in a dark cloak with flecks of aventurine shimmering about the pot as if dancing about only constrained by the borders of the form that have been rubbed back to a rich rust color. Made by a master of the studio pottery movement, Kawamura Seizan (1890-1967) of Kyoto this piece is a bit different than the majority of his body of work where he specialized in sometsuke and overglaze enamel painted pottery though this vase is typical of his attention to detail and exacting understanding of form. At many level I am reminded of a select group of the Meiji to early Showa studio potters blended with hints of older Chinese monochrome porcelains without the coldness and perfect sterility, this pot has a grace and appeal which is seemingly all about the form but let's be honest the rich surface certainly has something to do with it

STACKED III

Illustrated is a teabowl from my most recent firing, yesterday in fact, glazed in one of my Oribe recipes, it is decorated in a colliding rain pattern around the bowl, top and bottom. This is probably one of my favorite forms to throw whether it is for teabowls, serving bowls, covered jars or even vases, getting the proportions and curves just right without the piece collapsing is fun and takes one little focus I can muster while listening to some loud tunes of the "boom-box" just a few feet away from where I throw. I enjoy how the pots appear like there are just separate components stacked on top of one another and once completed they feel nice in the hand in large of smaller versions. At the end of the day there really isn't anything too adventurous about the form or glazing but sometimes that is exactly why a pot is appealing, well that's the hope anyway.

1968

Last week I put up a blog post regarding a new, old book that I had recently received by Kuroda Ryoji published in 1968 and put up a picture of a somewhat early kinuta vase by Tsukigata Nahiko showing where his work stood at about that time. I mentioned that the front of the book had a handful of color plates representing the various artists which also included a photo of a rather early Oni-Shino vase by Tsukigata that would likely have to date from 1966 or 1967 showing how far along this style already was at that time period. The key to these pieces and what distinguished Tsukigata from his contemporaries is his use of thick iron in conjuction with the Shino glazes he used which was then subjected to an intense wood firing in an anagama style kiln in which he altered the woods and schedule of his firings. I should remark that another key feature that distinguishes him from other potters is the unique set of forms that he settled on early on in his career which he would alter and improve upon over his lifetime. These varying forms differ from his master, Arakawa Toyozo and draw on but are not wholly based on the aesthetics of the Momoyama era making Tsukigata a man of his times, modern and feudal all wrapped together in a variety of unique surfaces that saw they started in the 1960s as can be clearly seen in this illustration from 1968.

A HANDFUL OF CLAY AND SOME ASH

I liked this chawan as soon as I saw it, boiled down it is just a handful of clay and some ash for the glaze. Making pottery really doesn't get much simpler or elemental than this, a potter, in this case Mizuno Takuzo throws a bowl he has thrown a thousand times before and adds an angular texture to the clay and pushes out from the interior creating fractures and fissures on the exterior. Later on and once bisque, the chawan is glazed in an ash glaze that Mizuno has used for several decades which once fired creates a wonderful surface for his pottery, accentuating every line, crack, dipple, fissure and highpoint on the pot taking this simple glaze and giving it depth, complexity and an ability to communicate with the viewer/ user. I am perpetually drawn to a pot that speaks of function while spinning a tale of it making and aesthetic choices that stem from years of making simple pots that are so much more when you are willing to stop and listen to what the clay has to say.

VIRIDI PATERA

Illustrated is a white slipped and carved bamboo form teabowl with a rich Oribe style glaze, like most of my teabowls it is on the large size and up to the task for whatever one wants to use it for. I was especially pleased with how dark the incised decoration is and also with the horizontal rings that run around the form at top, middle and bottom of the bowl adding a nice dimension and accentuating the form. As you look at this glaze there are very nice accents that run down, through the surface including areas that turn a rich amber color from iron applied the bowl and the way that the Oribe breaks to an almost clear around some of the incised marks while creating intense green areas as it runs off and around the carving is also quite pleasing. Given all of the variables and subtlties, I just don't see myself getting tired with these greens, I just keep pushing and testing and the possibilities just seem endless.

"If you don't know what makes green, you're going to try every color combination." Alison Krauss

VADE MECUM

 

I have a real love for books, in our last move from Virginia to central NY State we moved literally tons of books on a wide array of subject matter but certainly pottery is one of the main focuses. I really love finding books on Japanese pottery from the 50's and 60s which I am constantly on the look out for. Recently I found one on pottery by the 100 leading chadogu makers, published in 1968 and selected and written by acknowledged pottery expert and found of Kuroda Toen, Kuroda Ryoji. Though there are usually a handful of color photos at the beginning of this type of book, the majority of photos, signatures and seals are all in B/W which makes for good crisp photos and honestly a treasure trove of information. Many of the greats from the post-war era are highlighted in the book from well established potters to a group of up and coming  and there is also a three page spread on Tsukigata Nahiko which is one of the earliest references I have for him in my library. I am guessing that since the book was published in 1968 it was written and researched from 1966 through 1967 and I would further assume that Tsukigata was already a well known potter and on his way to perfecting his Oni-Shino style.

Illustrated next to the book cover is a kinuta mallet vase glazed in Shino glaze that has a certain aggressive quality to it and though not Oni-Shino, this glaze quality represents a clear departure from that of Arakawa Toyozo though the wonderful proportions of the  vase were quite well learned from the master and show a style and form that becomes quite distinctly Tsukigata's own in only a few years from when this piece was made.  There are a number of Tsukigata mallet vases on my blog so you can compare this one to latter ones and there is another, very early piece which was made in 1967 so it is easy to see the pace at which he was moving toward his more signature style. It is great to find books like this, they are exceedingly useful at piecing together the chronology of a potter's work and having a clearer picture of avenues that they pursued, some to folly and others to fame.

UNRESTRAINED

I've been around pottery and potters long enough that I can tell you what makes a good pot and a good potter and one characteristic that is shared is that sense of pushing the form and surface right to the edge and not crossing that line, the creation of a piece that is just right. One of the things that I have realized about my time making pots is that I have a seemingly genetic marker for being a bit unrestrained, in other words generally I get right up to that edge and then take a good flying leap beyond it. Illustrated is a 2vue shot of a teabowl I recently glazed and fired using my new nuka oatmeal ash glaze, NOA-3 for short, as you can see there is nothing subtle about the piece with a black slip under the glaze and two iron glazes over the surface to create a rather abstract decorated surface. Though I doubt one can tell, there is a pattern which roams around the bowl three times in the darker iron glaze with areas of the yellow iron being put randomly about the surface, I realize it is a bit chaotic but I love the frentic energy of decorating this way and in how the pieces turn out. Though there is some method to the madness, the way the glazes are brushed on without the ability to see where the slips are underneath makes for a certain degree of random chance to dictate how the final piece will turn out and that is where I am most happy.

"Random chance plays a huge part in everybody's life." Gary Gygax

ON MEMORIAL DAY

I realize this is an often and over used quote but I think it meets the deep rooted sentiment of our collective experiences.

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."  Martin Luther King Jr.