SANDY YUNOMI

Quite some time ago after handling a gosu blue henko with thick hakeme slip by Kawai Kanjiro, I was a bit surprised at how coarse the actual slip was under the glaze. Once I returned home from Japan I started trying out various "additives" to various slips from molochite to beach sand with an array of effects. Recently I inherited a bag of rather coarse sand with small rocks in it for good measure, perhaps 50lbs or so and have been using it in my small batch white and regular stoneware clays and have moved on to making a rather thick, sandy slip out of it as well.  

Illustrated is a small sandy yunomi, one of a group of pieces that I am using to test out the durability and endurance of the surface. This slip was applied with a coarse 2" brush in a vertical, albeit haphazard pattern and once bisque it was glazed in my two part Oribe that appears more amber than it does green. The surface is of this yunomi is rather coarse with a lot of actual and visual texture that is likely best suited for pots that don't come in contact with the lips but this is where I started. I suspect this is a rather good surface moving forward for vase forms and covered jars an though it bares no resemblance to the genesis of the idea, as with many of my pots, I have Kawai Kanjiro to thank for the inspiration some 30 years back.

 

A WEE BIT

It is not quite magic but at some level there is something magical regarding the molded henko forms of the Kawai school. Though few come close to Kawai Kanjiro's brilliance for capturing spontaneity and spatial awareness most of his nephew (Kawai Takeichi) and apprentices picked up the gauntlet to create their own unique forms in ways best meant to carry on the tradition and speak their own voice through pieces. 

 This rich gosu henko is by one of Kawai Kanjiro's last group of apprentices, Kawai Hisashi and shows the reliance on the master's work while stepping just outside the shadow of his influences. Sturdy and impressive in its presence, the basic form is crisscrossed with impressed decoration creating a highly decorative pattern that surrounds the base of the pot in a lattice which has pooled the glaze to create dark, rich gosu blue areas that define and animate the form. The base of the henko is slightly concave and finished in a clear glaze that allows the henko to rest on a narrow square while the sloping shoulder terminates in a thick pronounced mouth that has areas of mottled iron suspended across the surface from top to bottom. 

I think as you break down all of the elements of form, impressed design, glaze and associated details each one is a simple device but isn't it just a wee bit magical getting all these elements and the glazing and firing to work together if you stop and think about it for just a moment?

 

MARU-GATA

Looking a bit like a weathered and almost barren celestial planet (body), this Iga tsubo was made by Furutani Michio back in the early 1990s. Though I had almost forgotten about our encounter, finding a group of older photos taken and stored originally on discs, I immediately remembered the pot and its simple but excellent form and the areas of ash and shell impressions decorating the surface. Though I have seen these forms quite large what stood out about this pot was that it is basically about 20cm in diameter making for an intimate pot that sits well and fits in the palm of your hand for closer examination. There are a number of this form of all sizes and varying texture in TOH Vol. 2 showing precedance for this form among many others and I should mention on a trip to see Furutani-san in 1991 or 1992 he gave us a small catalogue from a show related to the Northern Lights in which many of the pots were these round maru-tsubo from really small to quite large. This was an enjoyable pot to handle and its reminder in these photos is rather welcome though I wish I had taken more pictures back then and certainly in much higher resolution.  

"The lamp once out    

cool stars enter   

The window frame."  Natsume Soseki

OPPOSITES ATTRACT

Illustrated is an interior shot of a recent kohiki mizusashi that came my way. Well known for his kohiki ware and ash glazed pots, this piece was made by Kimura Morinobu and symbolizes the quiet and simple works that he has crafted over a many decades of making pots on the outskirts of Kyoto. While created as a practical and purposeful vessel for use in chanoyu, tea ceremony Kimura added some aesthetically pleasing touches that add to the serene and somber kohiki surface from areas of iron ringing the base of the pot to a rather stylized "bird" knob gracing the handle which has a rather archaic appearance. Perhaps the most surprising touch that was unexpected is the yuteki style glazed interior that radiates as soon as the lid is removed, creating a sense of movement within the interior of this otherwise simple pot. While the exterior has a rather quiet appearance, the interior is the opposite having a rather potent and robust presence that as I mentioned was not totally expected but works in harmony with the mizusashi overall. Like the way that black and white work together, as opposites in harmony, I think the balance of kohiki and temmoku are a perfect combination where opposites attract, especially the eye.

CENTURIES PAST

Illustrated is a rather lush Ki-Seto hanaire that has a surface that is actually alive with movement and activity created by the ash glaze and the wide array of shimmering nodules that proliferate the surface and an abundance of bidoro spheres that punctuate areas of the pot. Though it may seem hyperbolic, this Ki-seto created by Hayashi Shotaro is easily the most complex and unique of its type where a blend of tradition and modern inspiration collide to create a unique surface (and pot) that adds to a rather distinguished and long line of potters that have gone before. 

Beyond the somewhat uncommon surface the form is also particular to the potter, at its base it finds its roots in centuries past leaning on an anthropomorphic ideal in form articulated by vivid throwing grooves, spatula marks and the intentional distortion of the round form adding a bit of tension and drama into the mix. Despite the evocative surface and expressive form, at its core it tells a story about rustic and weathered beauty, made to be used and considered as yet another contribution to a long tradition and a body of work that spans decades and nudges the present just a bit closer to the future of modern Japanese pottery.

TIME & LABOR

Quite often when I am making pots, I find myself when left on my own to make various forms a particular size, large teabowls, 14" v-bowls, 18" plates, all within a practiced and zone of familiarity and comfort. Now and again though I decide to make pieces that are more labor and time intensive for their size and this 9" vase was part of a group where size and time formed an inequity of sorts. This vase is comprised of four stoneware pieces, base, neck/mouth and two lugs though I could have made the body and neck as one I choose to lute the pieces together once the vase was firmly squared up. Thrown and altered, the base was made reasonably square and the corners nicely recessed from the base, the neck was attached on the wheel and then the pre-cut lugs were attached. Using thick white porcelain slip, the texture was added impasto style and then all I needed to do was wait on the vase to dry, bisque and glaze. 

As with quite a preponderance of my current work, I opted to glaze the piece Kuro-oribe style realizing the slipped and unslipped stoneware areas would be rather different in appearance as is plan to see. I like the dark, somber top contrasting against the light and animated base which though seemingly diametrically opposed in tone and texture work quite well together in my opinion. As a mentioned, though somewhat time and labor intensive, the outcome was close to how I invisioned the form be it 9" or 16" tall so I will agree to call this a maquette for a larger, future project.

"AND POTS"

Though I don't think there is anything rare regarding guinomi by Tsukigata Nahiko, there really are not many illustrated in catalogues, books or portfolios. The majority of guinomi that I have seen are either ones I have encountered in person, perhaps a half dozen and the ones offered for sale on any variety of website. I have seen a number of really wonderful Oni-Shino examples with the Oni-Iga examples coming in second as to my personal preference. Illustrated is a rather nice Oni-Iga guinomi that comes in at a good size that fits well in the hand and is both easy to hold and appears rather easy to drink from (though I have not done so). The body of the form is wider at the bottom, tapering a bit and holding a good shot of one's preferred spirit while resting on a wide foot ring that shows off the three wad scars that seperated the guinomi from being perpetually attached to a kiln shelf. Unifying the form is the icy, light green glaze over which splashes of iron bring movement to the pot which has a slight appearance of a three dimensional Zen painting as you fondle the guinomi and spin it between your fingers. 

 As I said, I don't think this or other guinomi exactly rate as rara-avis but like most of the good works by Tsukigata Nahiko there is a rather unique and memorable exchange between pot and user with each and every encounter. It was the famous French author, Guy de Maupassant who said; "It is the lives we encounter that make life worth living" but somehow I think it is safe to wedge in "lives and pots" into his sentiment.

ATYPICAL

Though perhaps not your typical, everyday Hagi surface, rest assured this is a classic hanaire thrown from daido clay somewhere in Yamaguchi Prefecture and made by the late Notomi Choun (1921-1995). This simple form was thrown out of a sandy, coarse clay with an eye toward function and purpose before being glazed and wood fired to produce this somber Yohen-Hagi style surface creating a rather intriguing, even captivating appearance of movement and visual variation. The main body of the atypical vase is a blend of active glaze moving down the vertical form with fire red areas of exposed clay capped off by a pronounced shoulder and mouth which gives way to a thick ring of blushed Hagi glaze ringing the lip. Breaking the vase up ever so slightly, Notomi has added two spontaneously attached lugs or ears to eith side of the base of the pot which is just enough to keep the form from becoming common in the presentation of the form. Despite every attempt to create a simple vase with a simple surface, the potter, glaze and firing have unitied to make a piece that stands out and awaits its completion through use, just the way it was intended to.

A LEMON OUT OF LEMON-AID

On some days throwing can end up seeming like I am just getting lemon-aid from the proverbial lemons, things drag and just don't go quite as planned. Stemming from this I ended up with a single thrown teabowl, left over after throwing a group of corresponding lids off the hump and as I moved a ware board this morning the tooled and finished bowl took a tumble direct to the concrete floor. Unlike Humpty Dumpty, it only took one potter with some spare time and an inclination to try and do something with the near flattened bowl and the illustrated teabowl is the end result. Cracked and ovalled beyond correction I first mended the crack with a seamless patch and then gently paddled the form to what you see here using a large and aged kitchen spoon. Once I ended up with the shape, I brushed thick, textured slip onto the bowl and at the very least it will make a good "next step" piece for testing, bigger that a pod or yunomi to best gauge the results of the slip and corresponding surfaces. Despite the description, I really didn't put very much time into this bowl but given the general mood of throwing for the day before I do feel a bit like I ended up making a single lemon out of lemon-aid.

TRICKY SUBJECT

As I look at this chawan, I am reminded of the lineage from Rosanjin to Arakawa, Arakawa to Kato Kozo and finally to the maker of this bowl, Hayashi Kyousuke, the thread and influences are there but there is a resolute voice as well of the current generation. Though I see elements of the past and present in this chawan I find Hayashi's Ki-Seto to stand out from the pack, unique in its color, texture and use in the same way I look at the very same glaze by Hori Ichiro. While Hori Ichiro's Ki-Seto and pottery in general has a rustic, old and elemental look, Hayashi seems to pursue a sense of formality and more refined appearance in his forms and this could be in part due to his highly structured Yuteki-Temmoku work that he is vey well known for.       

This chawan is composed of rather simple and straightforward lines acting as the bones for what is to come, the lip, mikomi and kodai are all very well addressed but they are not the adventure unto themselves, the structure is the canvas for a surface that is idiosyncratic, intrepid and contemporary not terribly unlike the surfaces of Raku Kichizaemon XV. As you can see, there is movement to the surface where the intermingling of matt and wet tributaries create a landscape that interacts with hand and mind at the very same moment.  Over time I have seen quite a few Kuro-Oribe and Ki-Seto chawan by Hayashi Kyousuke and despite looking at the forms as formal and streamlined so often, his unique approach to creating his various surface brings more than enough movement and spirit to his work, creating pots that have something new to add to the traitions in which he works as well as have an uncommon story to tell about an individuals approach to a tricky subject.