I
remember our first trip down to NYC to meet with Dr. Fred Baekeland and his
wife rather clearly and prior to going we had exchanged a few letters and photos
(remember a thing called the mail?) as well as a few phone conversations in
regards to our interests and our "want list". At the time we were
interested in wood fired pots, mostly the six ancient kilns, Shino and Hagi
pottery. When we arrived the good Doctor had a number of pots out and a group
of boxes within view and one by one he showed us a rather nice selection of
pieces, some in our price range and others not even close. We were guided
toward a young Bizen potter who's work we just did not connect with as well as
several Hagi pots by both Hatano Zenzo and Mukuhara Kashun, both of whom had
just recently had exhibitions in Japan which was where these pots were acquired
( I believe the shows were in Osaka and Kyoto respectively). We were taken by
both of these potters but we would have to choose between two chawan by Hatano
and one by Mukuhara and though it took some real mental acrobatics, we choose
the Hatano Zenzo chawan which we still have all these years later. After
several months we contact Dr. Baekeland and asked if the Mukuhara chawan was
still available and it was not and to this day we continue to have a soft spot
for the chawan ofboth Hatano and
Mukuhara . Fast forward more than a few years (!) and this rather nice, simple
chawan shows up with rich colors including some coral tones and a rather
provocative milky white ash glaze over the majority of the chawan. This chawan
is by Hagi potter, Mukuhara Kashun, at least a decade or more later than the
one I had handled back in NYC and has such a classic and traditional appearance
that it escape time, new or old it was created by design and for a specific
purpose. Over the years I have heard a number of individuals talk about what
does and doesn't make for a good chawan, how many are just "bowls" at
the end of the day, to my eye, Mukuhara doesn't go out of his way to make chawan,
it just happens on the wheel; first when it is thrown and then when the kodai
is skillfully yet simply executed. A good chawan reminds me that there really
is truth to the old adage, sometimes thing do just happen and probably all the
more often when you have spent a lifetime in clay. (* And yes, I miss
THE IRON CHEF Japanese TV show.)
In
some respects, this snowberry design is somewhat new, combining sgrafitto and
slip trailing and the majority of pieces that I have made have been plates,
tray forms, teabowls and covered serving bowls. I decided to branch out a bit
and see how the design works on various forms and along with a couple of
covered jars, I made a series of a dozen bowls, two sets of six with the
decoration on the interior and exterior. I think the design works well on the
form though doubling up on the decoration actually is a bit time consuming and
it took me a few bowls to figure out where I should start on the inside or out.
In the end, I decorated the interior first and then flipped the bowls upside
down to decorate the exterior which seemed to be the best way to complete the
task at hand and after completing a few pieces, a rhythm emerges and the
decoration moves along quite a bit faster than expected.
Having
had this Yamato Tsutomu Dai-Kannyu Hagi Chawan hanging around for a couple
weeks, I decided to make a short video slideshow to paint a fuller picture of
the piece presenting it as best I may in the round as it were. I think I first
saw a chawan by Tsutomu's father, Yamato Yasuo back in 2004 or 2005 and just
immediately fell in love with the surface and aesthetic. I love that the
surfaces look like they are literally being pulled apart like some celestial
breakdown of a planet or asteroid which gives telling glimpses in to the
interior of the pot exposing slip and clay in an evocative and narrative of
some distant primal expression. I think that the video also points out the
richness of color and texture and where the pot is visually dissected from dark
to light with a more classic Shiro-Hagi appears on the rear of the pot. In the
end what I hope one takes away from the slideshow is it is clear this is not
business as usual from Hagi but rather something new to father and son and
likely something to build on in an already rich and diverse Hagi tradition.
Enjoy the video. You can see this chawan over onTrocadero ; https://www.trocadero.com/stores/albedo3studio/items/1417067/TSUKI-KAGE-HAGI-DAI-KANNYU-CHAWAN-BY-YAMATO-TSUTOMU
I know in the past I have mentioned an interest in the
unpredictability of runny glazes in my work so it should come as no surprise
that the same applies to pots that I collect and/or study. The movement and
conversations created in a moving surface is pure excitement, it pleases the
eye and the soul which is the most you can ask of a pot. The illustrated detail
is from a Chosen-Karatsu chawan made by Fujinoki Dohei and the surface is alive
with motion as the glaze cascades down the rounded contours of the bowl. As the
tendrils of movement pick up varying tones of color and texture from the base
glaze, a rich tapestry is woven between pot and viewer, a narrative
steeped in a centuries old tradition that was made in the here and know;
centuries of tradition, aesthetics and beauty all frozen in time as the
elements coalesced to paint this Chosen-Karatsu waterfall. I wanted to present
this detail before showing off the whole chawan as sometimes the tree is the
first thing that should be realized before you take in the entire
forest. "Details make perfection, and perfection is not a
detail." Leonardo Da Vinci
I
finally fired a group of new Oribe test pieces including some small covered
jars, a few serving pieces, teabowls and the kotsuzumi style koro that I had
made. The results were pretty encouraging across the board with a nice array of
effects on the various pots, each according to how they were glaze treated. The
kotsuzumi style koro emerged without incident though I must admit until it was
unloaded I just had this sense that it may be jinxed but I was anxious for no
reason at all in the end. The koro came out pretty close to form as I had seen
in my head and the surface has a wild, variegated surface with streaking
resembling drizzling moss across nearly the entire surface with some areas of
thick blue-green to white running down the pierced knob and around the central
portion of the pot. The various sharp edges and lines around the pot as well as
the pierced and impressed squares break up the surface and add more movement
and detail to read. In the end I am both relieved and pleased to see this piece
completed, what started as a quick thought while watching a Mizoguchi film made
its way from a ball of clay to a complete idea in three dimensions, what is not
to love about clay and second chances?
There
is no escaping the fact that we are all an accumulation of our experiences, a
deep pool filled with all the bits and pieces we have ever encountered which for artists and crafts people it often
finds its way into their work. Each person ends up honing in on some aspect of
the blended psychology of numerous moments to focus on imagery and form that at
times may seem inexplicable to the outsiders; from baby heads to post
apocalyptic industry and almost (?) everything in between. This leads me to the
illustration of two meticulously crafted and well fired vases by Shigaraki
Valley potter, Kengo Saeki (b.1969) who after apprenticing with Sawa
Kiyostuguset up his independent studio
in 2003. What is particularly unique about these two vases is that each is
based on Japanese locks, just like a Western style padlock mostly seen in use
in the Edo, Meiji, Taisho and early Showa eras. As it is rather easy to see,
these forms, though perhaps a bit modified, lend themselves rather easily to
the aesthetic and function of a flower vase with their exacting and crisp
details softened ever so slightly by the natural ash built up that accentuates
the surfaces. In the end, we get this small glimpse in to the mind of the maker
and beyond the aesthetics of the object we are left to sit, contemplate and
ponder, just exactly where the idea really comes from and what is the potter
thinking or trying to communicate. "The conscious mind may be
compared to a fountain playing in the sun and falling back into the great
subterranean pool of subconscious from which it rises." Sigmund Freud
Over the years I have
concluded that I can easily run hot or cold on wari-kodai preferring a more
"conservative" foot ring is more my comfort zone not to mention the
aesthetic that I prefer. I have seen a number of chawan with excellent
wari-kodai, especially the works of Tsujimura Shiro, Miwa Kyusetsu XI and
Hayashi Shotaro but for me to be fully invested in this style, the execution,
and proportions have to be just perfect and sync seamlessly with the bowl form.
Illustrated is a chawan I recently handled by Enomoto Kyousuke and as you can
see from the photo the proportions and relationship to the bowl are almost spot
on and the way the kodai is cut and articulated bring some movement to an
otherwise static pedestal. Perhaps what I enjoy most is that Enomoto tooled or
carved out a slight basin like depression at the center of the foot prior to
cutting it which ends up having the bowl rest on the edges of each articulated
quarter. I really liked this touch and it changes the posture of the bowl and
when looking at the chawan seated on a shelf or other flat surface it allows
for a less heavy feeling and is really quite noticeable when handling the bowl
and resting it in the hand. I know I drone on about attention to details way to
often but what would anything hand or machine made be if the whole was not an
amalgam of considered details, like all the atoms in any particular molecule. "It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen." John Wooden
This
triangles decorated teapot was from a class that I taught some while back, the
goal was simple, throw a closed cylinder in under five pounds of terra cotta
and then cut it apart to build a teapot. Using about four pounds of clay, I
threw a mostly straight sided closed form with a slightly domed top and enough
clay in the base to tool a shallow foot and once it had set up, I trimmed out
an angled foot around the piece. Now comes the tricky part, I cut the closed
form with the trimmed foot into three pieces, the center piece being about 25%
of the total diameter and then reassembled the two end pieces together and cut
the foot to accentuate the form. I rethrew an opening to accept a lid which I
then threw to fit the teapot, threw and attached a spout and last but not least
added a handled. When I came up with the idea I hadn't really worked out the
decoration but I had some black and white slip with me so this is what I ended
up with. After the class, I brought the pot home and glazed it up in a copper
glaze that I had made up for some students and this was the finished product
which I have sitting up on a shelf, usually collecting dust as a reminder of
that exercise, did I mention it pours rather nicely? I should mention
that there was an incredible array of ideas that came from the group in the
class, from machine age, architectural, highly organic to outright fantastical.
I think it is a great way to keep on my toes by coming up with odd challenges including
tough time limits and the worst that can happen is that you wedge it up or
slake and reclaim the clay at the end of the day.
A
while back I put up a couple of different post in regards to a sculptural Bizen
piece by Kaneshige Kosuke, son of the Ningen Kokuho, Kaneshige Toyo. I think it
is fair to say that when thinking of Kosuke it is his sculptural body of work
that initially springs to mind and as you flip through TOH #45 that is all that
is illustrated in the book about this artist-potter. I think it is also safe to
say that among sake enthusiasts and chadogu collectors that Kaneshige Kosuke
has also create a wonderful array of guinomi, tokkuri, chawan, mizusashi, vases
and quite frankly, everyday using pottery. Looking at his body of work and the
pioneering aspects of his sculptural pieces I can see why these pieces have attacked
the lion's share among critics but his
wheel thrown pottery stands out among a large field among the Bizen tradition
and are quite easily at home in daily use, for the odd and rare ceremony or
occasion or up on a shelf to help define and even influence one's
environment. Illustrated is a low Bizen chawan with a slightly wobbly
posture and seductively undulating lip with a line creating the slope to the
foot that echoes the movement of the mouth and creates a nice sense of
movement. If you notice, there is a drip running up the bowl on the left which
visually defies gravity but is actually the tell tale clue that this chawan was
fired upside down. I think as you move away from thinking about Kaneshige
Kosuke's Bizen sculpture, this is not a bad chawan to look at; classic lines,
traditional yet modern form, nicely articulated surface and a lift off the foot
and shadow line that are pleasing to the eye and the soul not to mention a wonderful
sense of calm. It may not be a sculpture but following in his father's
footsteps, but the way Kosuke uses clay and firing can be seen in pots just
like this chawan combining a feudal tradition with concerns and aesthetics of a
new millennium.
I
have been continuing to work on "faceting" surfaces using this jagged
piece, almost a splinter of wood that has two sharp surfaces, one runs vertical
and the other horizontal making for a neat chisel effect which you can see in
the details of these photos. First thrown, the surface was then quickly faceted
while still wet and then the whole bowl was pushed a bit oval. As the pot
dried, I poured both white and black slip over the piece at four distinct point
making for a random decoration and then once bisque, I glazed the teabowl in my
saffron glaze with a hint of added iron here and there though I suspect it
would have benefitted from just a bit more iron, but who wouldn't? I think the
results are somewhat promising as I am trying to get more comfortable with the
cut and tear method of faceting. The current results are just a bit unpredictable
but in the end, it is this random quality that will keep me interested, keep
each bowl a bit different and hopefully each cut as fresh as when it was made. "When
you allow yourself to be unpredictable, you step from the known into the
unknown, where anything is possible*." Deepak Chopra (*Anything
being possible may not necessarily be the best thing conceivable on firing day,
just saying.)
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