ANOTHER FIRING, ANOTHER PITCHER

It has been one of those weeks. Getting things bisqued, cleaned, prepped, waxed, glazed and fired, as well as normal household responsibilities and squeezing in a movie or two on the tellie. Here is the run down;

Sun: Loaded kiln for bisque, ran a bunch of errands
Mon: Fired Bisque
Tues: Unloaded bisque, cleaned and prepped bisque, waxed and glazed, pack/ship a small order
Wed: Finished glazing, clean glazed ware and loaded kiln
Thurs: Fired kiln
Fri: Unloaded kiln, photographed pots, packed up small 3 orders

I have been getting about a 90% success rate out of most firings, though this kiln was just a bit less. It was made up of medium size serving bowls, a group of lidded oval pieces, a group of 4 vases, several covered cap jars, 3 “mizusashi” style covered jars, a new winged lidded form with two lids, some teabowls (as tests of course) and some pitchers. For years I was reticent to make pitchers and now it seems every firing has at least 2 or 3. I like pitchers, the various forms, different ways to handle them and possibilities to glaze them. If it is another cycle and another firing then it is another group of pitchers.

IT’S ALL IN THE ATTITUDE

Now I realize we all have varying perspectives of what is cool and what is not. Sometimes I think in the sheer act of talking or writing about “cool”, the farther away something is from cool. But when I first saw this Shigaraki mizusashi, all I could think was how “wonky cool” it was.

The attitude of this pot is a wonderful blend of medieval pottery with the zeitgeist of the 1970’s when it was made. The posture of the piece has an animated character to it that is accentuated by the hi-iro coloring, incised makings and balance of the essential elements. Made by Ota Minoru, a veteran potter who specializes in not only Shigaraki, but Hagi and Shino as well, the casual approach to potting and forming that loose, but so appropriate lid, comes from a lifetime of handling clay.

From my viewpoint, that is just a cool pot with plenty of attitude.

SOMETHING TO WATCH ON IPTV

I realize many of you have most likely seen the attached four videos from Youtube, but in the interest of becoming a multi-media conglomerate, I thought I would post these all in one place. I enjoy watching these videos time and time again and marvel at the simplicity of the various approaches to the task of throwing.

Hamada Shoji Throwing 1


Hamada Shoji Throwing 2


Michael Cardew Throwing


Bernard Leach Throwing

KODAI (1)

I mentioned in a previous post, how it was easy to identify the pots of Hori Ichiro, just looking at the foot, kodai. The truth is this can be said for most of the better Japanese potters. Yes, the kodai will change from pot to pot as well as over time, but there are always the tell-tale idiosyncratic characteristics that point to the maker. When you look over the feet of Arakawa Toyozo, Kato Tokuro, Kawai Kanjiro, Shoji Hamada and many others, the kodai shapes the pot and lets a viewer know who made the piece. In a way, the kodai acts as a signature, especially for those who do not sign their works and is the most difficult part to fake for those who would do so.

Illustrated is the wonderful and powerful kodai of a Seto-Guro chawan by Hori Ichiro. Though it shows some influences of his teacher, Kato Kozo, I find his kodai to be exceptionally individual in approach. The casual appearance of the foot and base hides the reality of years of trial and error, study and repeated experience to create so grand a foot. It doesn’t have the appearance of being “fussed” with or contrived. To my eye, it has all the characteristics of a great foot and as I am constantly reminded, the devil is in the details……………….

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

We made our way down to CT today to drop off a group of mostly stoneware pots at Wesleyan Potters. Everything went smoothly and as a major bonus, we ate at one of our favorite Greek diners, NICK’S DINER in Guilford, CT. We lived in Guilford for almost 5 years and we loved Nick’s for his great cheeseburgers, gyros, deli turkey sandwiches and well done onion rings. If you are in the area, it is worth a side trip.

The pottery I delivered will be on display, along with the potter and misc crafts of a number of crafts persons for the Wesleyan Potters Annual Holiday Sale from Nov. 26th through Dec. 12th at;

WESLEYAN POTTERS
350 South Main Street
Middletown, CT 06457

TIME

"To realize the unimportance of time is the gate of wisdom."
Bertrand Russell

With that in mind, today, I simply ran out of time. This week is a bit busy as I pack and drive an order to CT and need to get things decorated and in a bisque. Several orders need to be packed as well.

I will be brief and remind all to enjoy each moment before it ticks away...........

KI-SETO

Back when I would periodically wood fire, I had developed a quasi-Ki-Seto matt glaze that I had moderate success with. It was made from rice-husk ash and pure yellow iron oxide and really needed the wood fired atmosphere to activate the glaze. In gas, it was too even and actually not interesting so I was able to do very little with this glaze. I have actually, of late, been working on a revised version of the glaze that is the glassier style and is actually a combination of mixed wood ash and rice-husk ash. The results have been mixed and the testing continues. The wood fired Ki-Seto pieces are all sold and long gone and all I have to show for that work is a few pods and some fading slides.

Western potters trying to make Ki-Seto glazes can attest as to how complex this deceptively simple glaze actually is. There are two distinct types of Ki-Seto glazes, the matt style (ayame-de or aburagi-de) and the glossier, glassier style. Though the formulas differ, the glassier style is fired to a higher temperature than the matt type. I far prefer the aburagi style Ki-Seto glaze for modern Japanese pots and very few potters do this glaze well.

I am not sure if you are aware, but there is a nice web exhibit of Hori Ichiro’s works, mostly Ki-Seto wares that can be seen here;
http://www.japanesepottery.com/exhibitions.php

I first became aware of Hori Ichiro during the 90’s and before our current internet was anything other than a fermenting idea in Al Gore’s mind. I was instantly impressed by how he handled clay, glaze and firing. Hori, together with Yamada Kazu and the late Kagami Shukai (d. 2009) represent what I refer to as the San Mino Momoyama-jin, the three Mino Momoyama men. All three have made significant additions to the art of the Modern Momoyama style which both Arakawa Toyozo and Kato Tokuro set a very high bar.

Hori Ichiro is my favorite of the modern (living) Mino potters. He studied with current LNT, Kato Kozo, who was a student of Arakawa Toyozo, and much of his teacher and his teacher’s teacher can be seen in his work. Using a specially constructed anagama kiln, Hori fires his modern Ki-Seto in a neutral to oxidation atmosphere, controlling his temperature and firing with exacting precision to produce his aburagi style pots with wonderful koge scorching. When you examine his pots, Hori makes the greatest kodai, highly active, animated and medieval; they are immediately recognizable as his work. Hori’s forms, made from great Mino clays, are strong and powerful expressions that harkens back to earlier pots and together with his exceptional glazes and great kodai, his pottery represents the height of what I think of as Modern Momoyama. In my opinion his ability to create works in Shino, Seto-Guro and Ki-Seto is outstanding and will stand as a new standard for the Heisei era potters and beyond.

GAMBATTE................

Remember the word “rambling” in my blog title? Well, here you go;

I first heard the term gambatte (kudasai) back when I was studying Judo. At first, I had no idea what it meant. It was later explained to me that it meant; “don’t give up” or keep pushing through all adversity.

Now I must admit that I am no fan of Larry the Cable Guy, but it dawned on me the other day that gambatte is now used in a colloquial style just like, “Git’er done”. Go figure. I guess the sentiment is just global in its very implication………………

TSUKIGATA NAHIKO ON IRON

“The ONISHINO when considered from the ceramic technical point of view, is the one in which the fusing effects of iron ingredients, namely, the iron in the clay, the iron in the feldspar glaze and that in the flames, are ingeniously vivified on the Shino ware. These three factors bring out the variety of different finishes.” *

Illustrated is the Oni-Shino vase from which the close-up in my previous post, comes from. It is just about 9” tall and has a wide variety of elements to the glaze surface for which Tsukigata is well known.

(Another excerpt from ONI-SHINO by Tsukigata Nahiko)

ECCENTRIC SHINO

I have always been a huge fan of Shino. The beauty of Momoyama Shino, contemporary Western Shino and especially modern Japanese Shino are all of interest to me. If you look over the past 60 plus years, the Japanese have resurrected and added to the Momoyama tradition with a wide variety of styles and glaze types. The three major pioneers of this resurgence of Shino were Kitaoji Rosanjin (1883-1959), Kato Tokuro (1898-1985) and Arakawa Toyozo(1895-1985). It was the trail blazing inroads of these three that ushered in the interest of Momoyama Mino. They were followed by a number of great potters who used and built on their foundations. Potters like Suzuki Osamu, Kato Kozo, Hayashi Shotaro, Wakao Toshisdada,Yoshida Yoshihiko, Ando Hidetake, Toyoba Seiya and a number of others are adding to the Modern Momoyama aesthetic.

Within the modern Shino fold, there are two potters who stand out as innovators and eccentrics. I am talking about Tsukigata Nahiko (1923-2006) and Kumano Kuroemon, the bear of Echizen. Kumano’s pots are bold, hard fired and mostly oburi in nature and he uses what he calls Kumano-Shino and Matsuzaka-Shino (after a type of feldspar he uses) on his pots and they are then fired intensely in his anagama at nearly 1500 degrees Celsius. Kumano’s works are immediately recognizable for their scale and extreme surfaces.

Tsukigata Nahiko would seem to be the opposite of Kumano, reserved, introspective and on a spiritual journey to enlightenment of mind and work. He was an accomplished shakuhachi player, calligrapher, oil painter and sculptor of which many of his bronzes were cast in editions. Tsukigata studied and worked with Arakawa Toyozo and inherited a certain amount of his style, technology and firing methods. But there the similarities end.

After working with Arakawa, Tsukigata began to experiment with styles and firing methodology. He worked in Ko-Shino, Shino, Nezumi-Shino, Aka-Shino,Ki-Seto, Kohiki, Hagi and even Shigaraki. Then he coined the now famous term, Oni-Shino and also Oni-Iga to describe his new work. His Oni-Shino works are raw power and present a landscape, unseen in Japanese pottery before his “creation”. They are essentially Shino and iron glazes fired in an anagama to cover and activate the glazes with the deposit and build up of natural ash glaze circulating in the kiln. Tsukigata fires his kiln to a very high temperature and through the use of different types of wood, he is able to build up ash on his pots that fuses, like glass over the course of the firing. The results are wondrous.

The approach to wood firing Shino is a pathway of dedication. Since the 1950’s many potters have chosen to gas fire as a means of control, repeatability and expediency. The choice of the anagama and all of its variables makes each pot unique because of the process. For Oni-Shino, there can be no short-cuts.

Through wood firing his pots, Tsukigata made sure the each pot would have a differing story, a narrative, ensnaring the viewer with a tale of the intensity of the potter, process and the fire. His chawan, mizusashi, chaire, tsubo, hanaire, wall plaques, tokkuri, guinomi and yunomi, though all related through the potter, clay and process, stand alone as a statement in which the past and present collide through the violence and velocity of flame.

As you study Tsukigata’s pots, you can see the strength of potting, the quality of the clay, his attention to detail, the Shino and iron glazes over run by ash deposited during the firing. But as you look closer, you can see the furrows cut through the Shino glaze, like tamadare runs, by the ash built up like molten lava and running down the surfaces of the pottery. Within the running ash and areas of built up ash, there is a myriad of pattern; matsukawa-ji (pine bark ground) and chirimen-ji (crepe silk ground) spring to mind. There is much to see in his work with a dialogue that stirs the imagination.

I have been very fortunate to see, handle and study a number of works by Tsukigata Nahiko. In time, I began to realize that the Zen aphorism, Zoki-Nichigetsu (Together sun and moon all the brighter) is very indicative of Tsukigata. The meaning of this aphorism is that with each and every new enlightenment (his) heart shines all the brighter. With each new pot, each new firing, he came closer to the creation of his ultimate Oni-Shino.

There is a great book on the Oni-Shino works of Tsukigata Nahiko, simply entitled; ONI-SHINO. The array of work is breath taking and these serendipitous creations are truly the soul of the fire and artistry of Shino intertwined. “The reddish pottery created from the flame that could make an Ogre cry… from here Oni-Shino is born.”* Today, there is a large number of pots being made and described as Oni-Shino, but when I think of that term, only one name springs to mind and that is Tsukigata Nahiko……………….

Illustrated is a large Oni-Shino Chawan (used with the permission of a private collector) and a close-up of a Oni-Shino hana-ire, both by Tsukigata Nahiko.

(* an excerpt from ONI-SHINO by Tsukigata Nahiko)