RESEARCH ASSISTANT

I recently received an unboxed chawan that was sent to me to try to uncover who had made it. The bowl was bought in Shigaraki in the mid-1980s and the owner had absolutely no recollection of the maker. It is a stout and well fired bowl but the mark was entirely covered over in natural ash glaze rendering it next to impossible to read. I had it on my desk, in front of the computer and I was using a 20 power loop to try to get a read on the mark and was getting no where so I pulled out my digital camera and set it on the highest resolution and just as I was to take the picture, my current research assistant and pottery helper decided he wanted a shot at it himself. In a proverbial, "I am ready for my close up" moment, instead of the bowl I ended up with an in your face photo of Khan the curious. Though he didn't help me uncover the maker, the use of the hi-rez picture did and I was able to determine the chawan was made by Furutani Churoku. It would have been much easier if I had the box or bio, but getting to the bottom of the matter was still made just a bit more fun with the aid of an inquisitive and curious feline.

"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats." Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)

黄瀬戸

I can only imagine that making pots for over six decades can lead to a number of adventures, discoveries and achievements especially if you live in the heart of the Mino ceramic tradition. Such is the case for veteran potter Kishimoto Kennin who has explored and conquered a wide array of Mino styles as well as mastering the art of kannyu style celadon and Iga wood firing. Along the way, Kishimoto studied and mastered the basics of Shino, Oribe and Ki-Seto solidifying a foundation that would in time lead to his modern works. His classic and traditional styles showcases his unique approach, creativity and firing techniques which have left behind an impressive and rather individualistic body of work.

Illustrated is a classic Ki-Seto chawan by Kishimoto Kennin. The form is definitely Momoyama inspired and the contrast of the wet and dry surface is a result of layers of natural wood ash depositing on the face of the bowl. This process has created a rich surface where the ash has landed to where it feathers out away from the center of the bowl making for a very modernist landscape. This style of bowl has a wonderful full feeling in the hand and the contrast between wet surface and the drier ash makes for a unique tactile experience that only wood firing can create. Few potters can boast such diverse expression across such a wide array of styles and traditions, thus securing Kishimoto Kennin a spot among a select group of potters of modern Japan.

MIXED UP

Illustrated is a mug that at its core is a bit mixed up. The mug is loosely based on a Western medieval jug while the glaze is distinctly influenced by Eastern Oribe glaze. Fusing the two together, the mug still has a sense of both of the medieval traditions while being very modern in its presentation. Combining elements in a reasonable fashion interests me quite a bit all the more so when it works. I have described the process like a blender where all the experiences gets dumped in and blended about; what comes out is a unique and functioning synthesis of any number of pieces parts that have come before. I have also found that Oribe is an incredible diverse set of glazes that works well and compliment a wide array of forms, styles, ideas and combinations, I am not sure what I would do without copper or the palette it affords me.

CRAZEY BLUE MONDAY

Illustrated is a kannyu seiji chawan by iron specialist, Takahashi Wasaburo. I have written about this potter several times previously in my blog and hold a special place for him as his was the first Japanese chawan that my wife and I ever collected. I am drawn to Takahashi's work as there is a casual, unfettered simplicity to his work, it just happens, he doesn't need to fuss to throw the least encumbered form. This chawan is a simple bowl with classic lines, thoughtful purpose and casual form with a rich, crazed blue celadon that coats the piece and brings it to life with the decoration created within the glaze itself. Where the glaze has run off the lip just a bit, the mouth is bordered by a slightly darker hue bringing attention up and into the interior. Though this bowl appears common in certain respects, there is nothing common about it and the kannyu crackle makes for an endless dialogue between chawan and user, the cha is just the added bonus.

"Simplicity is natures first step, and the last of art."  Philip James Bailey (1816-1902)

A crazy video for a Monday, Kate Bush; RED SHOES

MELTING SNOW II

I would appear that Spring has finally sprung in our neck of the woods. The real tell tale signs of Spring is the incredible melt off and running water that makes its way from the hills in to the river at the center of the valley. When I think of the last throes of Winter only recently departed and the onset of Spring, I am reminded of a fine chaire made by Tsukigata Nahiko. This Oni-Shino chaire shows drifts of snow being cut through by small ravines created by flowing water creating a microcosm that epitomizes the season in my mind. One of the reasons that I admire the Oni-Shino of Tsukigata is the complexity of the surfaces and the endless landscapes and memories that they can conjure.

REFLECTIONS

Last week I received an email out of the blue letting me know that my pottery was going to be part of the ten year anniversary exhibition at the AMOCA (American Museum of Ceramic Art). The pieces in question are a set of pots that were collected by the museum and to say that I am honored and flattered that they chose my work out of thousands of pieces for an exhibition where the poster showcases pots by both Bennett Bean and Betty Woodman would be an understatement. What this email did spark though was to get me to reflect on the number of pots I have made and all the styles, firing types and clays and glazes that I have worked in over all of these years. It is not bragging to say that I have gone through clays, temperature ranges and glazes like a kid in a candy store; each one having some ability to help give dimension to the crazy voices in my head. Fortunately, there is no end in sight for what is possible and hopefully the voices won't go away anytime soon.

Illustrated is a kohiki style mizusashi form that I made for a friend. Thrown with stepped terraces with a slight space age design the piece was dipped in slip and than an ash based clear glaze. The rings had the slip scrapped off once dry to create an additional decorative accent to the piece which helps highlight the form. Though somewhat intended as a mizusashi water form, the new owner had decided it was perfect for dog treats for his favorite canine. In the end, the function is not that important, it is the fact that the pot is in use that trumps any predetermined idea as to what the pot is. Everyone has their own perspective and what is so great about making so many pots is that there are a lot of possibilities.

ODDS AGAINST

I wonder how many of you have read the book or seen some movie version of Jules Verne's' AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAY? The reason I ask is at times that is exactly how long it feels like for a pot to arrive once I have been notified it has shipped. It doesn't matter if the pot is for my wife and I, something to research or sell or a pot sent by a friend so that I can study it, the waiting is always the hardest, wrought with anxiety until the piece or pieces arrive here safely. Pottery is after all fragile and packing varies from sender to sender.

The reason that this has become a current topic is that a package was mailed out from Japan a while back and became a 44 day odyssey of misdirection and misadventure and though I have no proof, I think it also made its way to the International Space Station during its journey. The package was brought to the Japan Post and everything went smoothly until it was time to board a plane for the next part of the journey. The package was of course traceable and was updated as, "origin post is preparing shipment" which in the past has meant the piece was being loaded on to an aircraft but in this case, it just lingered with days turning in to weeks. Both the sender and I set about trying to trace the package but there were no results at which time an insurance claim was initiated.

Then, out of the blue, this past Friday, our local post office called and said there was a package for us and could we please come and pick it up because it was very badly damaged. My wife picked it up on her way home for lunch calling me to let me know the package appeared to have been run over by something and was soaking wet to boot. Once she arrived we set about taking pictures of the crushed and water logged package that was shrink-wrapped with notices from the USPS stating how sorry they were that the package was damaged in their care. We carefully unwrapped the package while documenting the condition and were 110% sure the contents had to be beyond recognition or salvage. The first thing we removed was a small cardboard box that was soaking wet but intact and unwrapped the ceramic and lacquer lids, both in excellent condition, next we removed the main contents that was wrapped in a thick layer of large bubble, bubblewrap and it was also dripping wet. We carefully removed the bubblewrap to find the wood box not only bone dry but also in perfect condition and as we unpacked the mizusashi it came out just as it was made in perfect condition.

Truth be told given how long the package was missing we were hoping it would never show up as we were certain that it would be destroyed and quite frankly, neither of us wanted to see that. We tried figuring out the odds of the two lids, the wood box and the pot all arriving intact and it would seem to be about 1 in 96,000. Maybe it is true, a journey of 7000 miles does in fact begin with the first step, great packing and a tracking number.

A THEORY OF RELATIVITY

I recently was able to complete a trade for a pot that I had wanted for quite some time and was  exceptionally surprised to get the better end of the deal. Well, let me clarify that, to me, I got the better end of the deal, not necessarily so from the person I traded with who has exactly the same viewpoint regarding what they received. It is somewhat paradoxical that a piece that I so highly regard can be just another "ordinary" pot to another, I guess it is just relative to what you like and respond to for whatever reason. Offered here is a theory of relativity as it applies to "stuff", in the end, we both got exactly what we wanted and in a perfect world, that should always be the outcome. A very similar event happened recently on a Japanese website, a pot that I found incredible (and beyond our price range) was listed and I was sure by the next morning it would be sold, it was not, Morning after morning passed and it was still there, to us very frustrating and as irritating as anything else. It took quite a few months to sell and it just seemed to defy logic how anyone else who would encounter the pot didn't see it exactly as we did. I have long since concluded that perception and experience are as different from individual to individual as is our idiosyncratic genetic profiles.

I know I have touched on this subject before on my blog but simply put, there are times that I am just amazed at the great disparity in how people value things, to me a treasure and to someone else, just another "thing". It is not exactly "one man's treasure is another man's trash", but honestly there is no rational explanation for this phenomena and luckily so. If everyone wanted exactly the same "stuff" it would be very, very difficult and prohibitively expensive for most collectors to collect, I am certain that the needed diversity of interest is exactly what keeps the earth spinning around the sun, so much for Copernicus' theory.

Illustrated is a solitary and noble sunlit Iga vase by Furutani Michio. I had set the vase on a shelf while I was photographing another pot and nature did the rest of the work.

"This perception of division between the seer and the object that is seen, is situated in the mind. For those remaining in the heart, the seer becomes one with the sight."  Ramana Marharsi

EXPLORING THE OPTIONS

Illustrated is another Shino slip pot, this time a robust teabowl with a runny ash glaze on the interior and part of the exterior. Once the bowl was dipped in the Shino slip, the exterior was dipped twice, rather quickly to get two thin coats built up in an attempt to control the running, I was hoping to keep the original dipping line intact and luckily it turned out as I hoped. I have tried a number of combos with the Shino slip as a base as a means to explore the options but I have found various ash and even Shino glazes to be more to my taste than some of the pairings, some of which are just terrible. Never forget, what has been seen can not be unseen.

PALE BLUE MONDAY

Illustrated is the interior of a chawan by modern Mino potter; Kato Toyohisa (b.1962). Kato refers to the style of glaze as Murasaki(no)Shino and it appears to be based on a slightly cobalt richer Nezumi-Shino; though the way the pot is glazed is aggressive and modern, it is built on the best features of the tradition, making his pottery speak out. The glaze has a wet, soft appearance and is infused with a myriad of white speckles and ringed in hues of iron blushes around the mikomi and up the walls of the bowl, settling into a rich ring defining the lip. The smooth variations of the glaze are timeless and create an evocative landscape that is both hard to leave and even harder to forget.

"Recollection is the only paradise from which we can not be turned out."   Jean Paul Richter (1763-1825)