ROAD TRIP

I am not sure how often this happens to other potters but I ran out of clay recently, I still have a good cache of terra cotta and porcelain but not stoneware. Part of this problem stems from the fact that a clay supplier I used to get deliveries from was goobled up by a really big company so now I have to make a supply run an hour west or two hours east to get heavy supplies like clay and chemicals for glazes and slip. Compounding this new issue is that our vehicle can only really carry about 500lbs at a time so I am limited with each trip. I know, things could be a lot worse, I could have to dig my clay and mine my own materials but truthfully i wasn't paying enough attention and "poof" the stoneware was gone.  

Illustrated are two, well three pasta/ salad/ what-have-you omnibowls that along with a spare teabowl were thrown off the hump and represent the last bag of clay. I threw these bowls to proof, test the amber and soda blue on shallow pieces as well as making sure that the glazes will work considering I am using newly sourced materials. Shouldn't be a big problem but better to be safe than sorry as the old days of saying; "well f#ck it" and filling a kiln with an iffy glaze are well behind me or at least I hope so.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Illustrated is a rather wonderfully fired Shigaraki uzukumaru style pot or is it? Made in Nagaoka City in Niigata the works of Kon Chiharu are sometimes called Echigo Shigaraki as they are made in what used to be Echigo Province prior to the Meiji Era but does it boil down to location, location location? Despite where it was made, this haikaburi tsubo was guided along its pathway from Shigaraki traditional pottery under the guidence of Tsuji Seimei who himself did not reside in Shigaraki proper. Under Tsuji's tutelage, Kon Chiharu master the insight into medieval style pottery, use of clay and firing where today his works are highpoints of the tradition irrespective of geography. This tsubo clearly has a sturdy and powerful form with a well defined neck and mouth that has a playful and wandering quality that makes for a rather distinctive and alluring vessel. Fired on its belly, the scars and ash flow surround the pot in a gravity defying embrace where the horizontal movement adds a trememdous  amount of animation to a form that seems rooted to the ground through its purposeful form and base. In this case the pot just happened to be at the right place at the right time and the sun did the rest of the heavy lifting.

WASHIZOME

Illustrated is a small washizome futamono by Saga prefecture potter, Eguchi Katsumi. This small covered box was skillfully thrown out of a dense, white porcelain with deocration using dyed paper to create the overall design before adding accents in sometsuke blue style. The entire covered box for is covered in a simple, brilliantly transparent clear glaze with the piece being deocrated entirely around the form with a single larger blossom depicted in the inside of the bottom and lid. As one might expect the fit and finish of this little box is equal to his large pieces, skillfully thrown, tooled and meticulously decorated with an exacting fit between the two pieces, top and bottom. This covered form is bigger than a kogo and measuring in at about 12cm across, not 100% sure of its intended purpose but even at this size, the possibilities are almost endless.       

As mentioned Eguchi Katsumi is well known for his skilled use of this washizome technique using traditional handmade Japanese paper in the pursuit of his decoration. Unlike many other Saga/ Arita potters, Eguchi is hands on for all of the processes in the creation of his work from throwing, tooling, decorating and firing making him a bit different than many in his community. Though this small covered box is simple with a simple design, this piece clearly portrays the style and technique developed by Eguchi Katsumi to its fullest and shows a dedication to not only his unique decorative approach but to his indigenous materials, firing and heritage blending tradition and traditional materials with a modern sensibility.

HANABI II

Recently I was contacted regarding making another hanabi fireworks teabowl but they didn't want an "exact" copy of the orginal set, rather something that had the same general decoration and feel but would stand apart from the other bowl. I was rather relieved they wanted something in the same style and technique because whenever you actually try to make a copy, exact or close, things don't normally pan out well, at least from my experience. On top of that, revisting something almost a year later I know I always wonder if I will get to the heart of why the individual wants it in the first place, does it have the same spirit or sensibility. I know this is basically a simple bowl with a very simple technique employed and not complex rocket science but when  someone wants something the goal is to try to live up to the expectation.     

Illustrated is the recreated hanabi technique, the white areas and the bowl shape are made a bit more formal with high mostly straight sides and just a hint of throwing rings around the form. As for the colors, they were easy to match and the bowl has that deep black, glossy look broken up with the white panels and colors punctuated and splashed across the surface. I would like to think I succeeded in my goal as the customer was happy so I guess that is about as good as it gets.

WELL CONSIDERED ADVENTURE

Illustrated is another Kuro-Bizen tokkuri by Oiwa Tomoyuki and this one is of a different form and approach than the previous one, another well considered adventure. Composed of a number of focal points and various angles and crisp, sharp shoulder the raised band around the waist and the inviting flare of the mouth all work well together while modelling its new suit of ash and lusterous black that  breathes life into paints the form and paints the narrates. The waisted center of the tokkuri calls to the user and makes for a perfect purchase for pouring of just admiring in hand while the dual texture of the glossy black and the semi-matt ash appeal to both eye and hand. There is something captivating about the posture and goals involved in the creation of this tokkuri; the body is a perfect size and the neck and mouth compliment the proportions and all together it carries out a conversation regarding function and aesthetics. To my eye, Oiwa has struck a wonderful balance of taking what he learned under his master, Kakurezaki coupled with his own vision and blended it into a statement about an evolving, modern tradition where new techniques, ideas and firing usher in a whole new understanding of what it means to be Bizen now and well into the future.

NULLUS SUBSITUTUS

I'll start out by saying that I realize there is no substitute* for the real thing, in this case a gosu hakeme chawan by Kawai Kanjiro but when I first saw this bowl, I immediately thought that this was in the top percentage of work by one of his pupils, Mukunoki Eizo. Both the broad bowl form and foot are reminescent of Kanjiro's chawan but there is a subtle difference in shape and the bold application of thick hakeme slip, a difference that is easily identifiable yet all the features of Mukunoki's pot quickly add up to one is truly a remarkable work by a student and not the master. Consideration has been paid to the form and  function of this chawan with a lip that is both sturdy and narrow enough to drink from with a broad, pleasant curve and volume to the bowl and a strong, pedestal foot that acts as a perfect resting place as well as a stark visual feature that weighs in as a counterbalance to the overal aesthetic. The interior of the bowl has a thick, crackled clear glaze while a gosu covers the highly textural hakeme slip in blue with areas of rich iron make their way to the surface adding even more dimension to a study in ceramic topography. 

Just to be clear, this chawan is in no way a substitute for the work of Kawai Kanjiro but given the difference in everything from foot to surface is it even possible to make that leap when you are judging the pot on its own merits and that of the potter, Mukunoki Eizo.  

( *I wrote this post after an exchange with a fellow collector who asked me if this wasn't just a "poor mans" substitute for the original, a contention I strongly disagree with.)

SOCIAL MEDIA

Being an individual more than willing to embrace the 21st century, I just wanted to take a momnet to let any bloggers know that I am also on both Instagram and Facebook. These outlet are using a lot of the old posts used first here on I, POTTER but there are some new and slightly different content if you wish to take a look.

https://www.instagram.com/albedo3studio/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100074959900457

ANOTHER CLASSIC II

Quite some time ago, 2012 to be exact, I put up a dealer's photo of a classic Furutani Michio Iga mizusashi and now here is an impromptu photo of the same mizusashi showing off the opposite side in situ. I am sure there is a wide array of superlatives that could be used to describe this piece but I will use a few; classic, modern archetype and elementally rustic. What is abundantly clear in this photo and the previous one is that this strong, sturdy form is like a completed puzzle of details that bring life to the piece from the casual potter's marks, the lugs, the lid and knob surrounded by a vivid lake of pure green glass. Through a carefully crafted blend of experience, happenstance and firing acumen, Furutani Michio's pottery stand out among his contemporaries helping to bring a tradition well into the 21st century and leaving behind a tremendous body of work which can be enjoyed at face level of act as an ongoing tool to teach modern potters what it means to have dedicated a lifetime to the dual traditions of Iga and Shigaraki pottery.       

You can see the original 2012 post by following this link;

https://albedo3studio.blogspot.com/2012/09/another-classic.html

YAKISHIME PART II

Back in 2018 I put up a post entitled, YAKISHIME about an unglazed, wood fired mizusashi by Kimura Morinobu. Little did I know at the time that this mizusashi would come my way and secondly it would also be only my second kintsugi piece of pottery ever collected. I was surfing around a site and happened to spy this Shigaraki mizusashi when I immediately recognized it from the retrospective book; KIMURA MORINOBU SAKUTO GOJU NEN, 1951-2000 and it was put up with a total of ten photo. What I had not realized when I first saw this photo was that it had two kintsugi repairs where the lip cracked as the pot was fired on its side with yet another pot's weight on top of it. In the firing the form compressed oval and the lip, top and bottom split a small amount and were both later repaired/ filled, kintsugi style which is shown in the retrospective catalogue.    

Illustrated is the mizusashi in question which is described as "Shigaraki Mizusashi" and living only a few miles away from Shigaraki perhaps the description is close to spot on. The face of this pot is covered in a thin, fine layer of ash that breaks and gives way to some ash, lots of hiiro fire color and various areas of buff, feldspar saturated clay where the mizusashi laid on its side during firing. The form, distorted from the firing process has become  wonderfully animated where it has been squeezed a bit ovoid which also lead to the mouth splitting at what was north and top and bottom during the process. The lacquer repairs bring a bit of restored dignity to the integrity of the mizusashi and the custom lacquer lid fits perfectly in the kidney shaped aperture of the mouth. 

In retrospect I find it a small dose of serendipity that I pot that I admired and decided to post should five years later come my way and at the same time teach me an interesting lesson about kintsugi and how that process has added to the presence and aesthetics of a pot that benefits greatly from the specific and caring traditional attention it received.

WHAT A PAIR II

I received this (and quite a few other) picture(s) the other day from a shuki enthusiast in Europe. We have been trading back and forth pictures of various pots but mostly guinomi and tokkuri and this was his latest addition. When I first saw these two pieces together all I could truly think was 'what a pair", these pieces just work well together in form and surface and must be a joy to have just hanging around on a desktop. Both the Bizen tokkuri and guinomi were made by Oiwa Tomoyuki, a former apprentice of Kakurezaki Ryuichi and despite some of the obvious influences of the master, Oiwa has carved out a nice niche for himself where his voice, handling of clay and his firings have become rather distinctive.          

The tokkuri has a wonderfully sturdy form where the potter has tied in various details from the tapered foot, swelled out mid-section and faceted top culminating in a crisp and depressed shoulder that serves as a great foundation for the perfectly proportioned neck and mouth and death defying drip, front and center. As you can see, this tokkuri was fired on its side where the running ash has beaded up near the shell scars of the wadding creating a nice focal point of unintended decoration. 

Not to be outdone, the guinomi was fired upside down ending up with two, nearly perfectly placed drip of ash suspended as if gravity was not one of newton's laws or a guiding principle of the universe. The rich, shiny black interior is comingled with deposited ash the runs vividly toward the lip creating a rather intoxicating appearance and perfect for its intended use. I am sure that at the end of the day, every collector and sake enthusiast has there own definition of what makes for a perfect pair but I think these pieces speak volumes about gravity and determination which is clearly written across their surfaces and form from top to bottom and to my eye, they just belong together.