DIOSPYROS KAKI

Back in 1985 there was a rather wonderful exhibition of the pottery of Imai Masayuki at the PEABODY MUSEUM of SALEM which showcased the broad variety of his work from zogan inlay pieces, underglaze painted wares and even Jun style pottery. Despite the variety, there is a thread which binds his works together including the painted pieces which give a different face to his somewhat graphic style. The underglaze pieces were painted with cobalt, iron and other oxides before having a soft, white glaze or Shino put over them creating design and decoration quite separate from the precision of his inlaid, wood fired pots. Illustrated is such a pot where he has first incised a design and then added colored washes of cobalt and iron to accentuate the persimmon, the "divine fruit" design created on the mizusashi. The vivid decoration livens up the simple form and soft white surface making for a pot that is enjoyable to have a nice, long conversation with, perhaps over a cup of tea.

MADARA-KARATSU

I don't know a lot about the maker of this mizusashi, but according to his bio, Kojima Yoshiaki specializes in Karatsu pottery of which this piece is a very nice example. Thrown and then furrowed, this pot is covered in a very nice Madara-Karatsu glaze with accnets of iron on the face, the overall surface has a wide array of colors, tones and a sheen that gives the piece a rather serene appearance. The foot is just wonderfully dealt with with a crinkly surface, great shell-wad marks and glaze running toward the bottom of the piece. There is a very similar example in the book; MODERN JAPANESE CERAMICS on page 75, no. 54 though I think this example is just as fine as the one illustrated. All in all this is a rather classic example of Madara-Karatsu pottery and a great piece of contemporary chadogu.

You can see more photos of this mizusashi on my Trocadero page:

https://www.trocadero.com/stores/albedo3studio/items/1375914/MADARA-KARATSU-MIZUSASHI-BY-KOJIMA-YOSHIAKI

B&A II

A couple of firings ago, I made a series of small slipped and combed covered jars in amber, Oribe and Ao+ glazes and when seaching for some photos I noticed I had a before and after photo of the same jar showing it from a nearly identical perspective so I decided to post it up. The before photo shows the jar having been slipped, combed and only recently carved on the shoulder and lid and the after photo is rather self-explanitory. These jars were quickly slipped and combed and the carving was also done rather quickly trying to give the piece a rather casual and natural feel and then once glazed, the Ao+ filled in all the nooks and crannies creating a nice contrasting depth of color to the overall appearance. I like making covered pots, it allows me to fit together two seperate pieces as well as wondering what will this jar or the others from the series will be used for?

TANPAN

Arguably one of the finest Ki-Seto potters of the 20th century, Kagami Shukai (1941-2009) created this little gem of a chaire in his thoughful and classical style. This simple form with natural throwing marks and taunt shoulder is covered in Kagami's unique Ki-Seto glaze with tanpan (tanban, tampan), copper splashes on the on the face and back  and a slight amount of koge, scorching around the bottom third of the piece making this an ideal and crucial part of the tea ceremony. Though seemingly simple in its creation, this chaire is the pinnacle of the art and the result of years of practice and in depth research not only honing his craft but also understanding the historical glaze and forms he pursued; in fact his research into Mino pottery extended to archeological digs and kiln and shard excavations to further his knowledge of the history, clay, glazes and manufacture of Shino, Oribe, Seto-Guro and Ki-Seto in the region. There is little else I can actually say about this wonderful little pot other than stating the obvious, big things do come in small packages and in this case it also packs a tremendous punch on nearly every level.

THE OLD STYLE

This jpeg is another image I have had on my computer for quite some time and every time I look at it, it feels as if I am looking back in time. Made by Nakagawa Jinenbo (1953-2011), this Karatsu style kohiki mizusashi looks like it was made much earlier then in actuallity being a product of the Heisei era. The casual faceted form has a timeless, weathered, cracked surface that appears much more feudal than modern and shows a great dedication to Ko-Karatsu which Nakagawa specialized in making pots in a wide variety of the old styles using traditional methods, clays, glazes and kiln firing. I have seen a wide array of pottery by Nakagawa in Japan and over the years and I am particularly draw to his kohiki style which shows such inspired subtlties and are the epitome of casual in their creation. It is a great tragedy that such a gifted potter left at such an early age, one can only wonder what great pots he would have left behind beyond those already made and fired in his unique and old style way.

STRETCHED OUT

For a while now I have been making up my own higher iron clay body which throws rather well and looks nice when fired but I began to discover that it has its limitations in regards to man-handling it. The more I push, shove, fold and alter, the more it was just not happy with the process so I set about altering the formula a bit and here is the latest incarnation. I will start off by saying that there is not a lot of large particles in the mix and I don't use grog, but this test seems to respond well to be folded, altered, pushed, pulled and stretched out. The illustrated bowl was thrown round with a slight waist and then it was folded up to an oval form and then I carefully stretched out the clay above and below the waist to create a bowl almost twice as wide as it was when it was thrown. As you can see, once tooled I applied a thick slip that I combed above and below the waist and am now keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't collapse before it dries enough to be stable. Provided it makes it through the bisque and glaze firing, I will post up the finished piece and conclude the newest clay body will allow me more latitude when working with it, after all, a potter has to know his clay's limitations.

A BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP

I recently received an email asking if I could show an overall photo of the large Matsuzaki Ken Shino tsubo that I posted in a post entittled; PERSPECTIVE. When possible, I try to be accomidating and since I took a large number of photos of this piece and have not built a slideshow video of the pot, this photo will have to suffice for the time being. As I pointed out in the original post, I was just not prepared for the actual scale and volume of the piece as it is quite large and certainly commands the space it is in and that is around it as well, a pot like this is a lot like a beautiful friendship. Along with the sheer presence of it being a large pot, the form is sturdy and solid with a surface that has just about everything you can imagine from the thick whipped cream like Shino, subtle iridescence here and there, rich yohen and ash coating the pot forming areas of beautiful glass across the piece. I have to admit, it was an impressive piece and spent way to short a time here but none the less it has left an indelible mark on my mind's eye and will be hard to forget as time goes by*.

(*Sorry, I couldn't resist, not one but two CASABLANCA references. How often do you see that in a pottery blog post?)

BOTAMOCHI

On my first trip to Japan, I was fortunate to encounter a wonderful exhibition showcasing primarily chadogu made by Kaneshige Michiaki, eldest son of Kaneshige Toyo. There was a wide variety of pieces and surfaces each complimenting his forms and I distinctly remember a very fine chaire that had been fired on its side, botamochi style very much like this illustrated piece. The chaire was placed on a pad which then acts as a "resist", keeping ash from building up on the surface and thus creating this rather vivid area ringed by various attempts of the ferocity of the kiln to paint the masked area, the results can be quite wonderful as seen on this diminutive little giant. Back in the early 1990s there was a wonderful series of videos which high lighted 90 of Japan's finest teaware makers, GENDAI (no) Chato. Of the twelve vidoes, all but three featured 10 to 12 potters however Kaneshige Michiaki was in one of only three videos which feaured just three potters attesting to his standing in regards to making chadogu. This chaire has everything you would want from rich surface to engaging and enticing form obviously crafted by a master potter at the height of his skill; a classic pot by a classic potter, Kaneshige Michiaki.

T&A V

I have mentioned previously that after my first trip to Japan, I became interested in bells as a form more than as the functional object. If you look at bells from ancient China and medieval Japan, the forms, decoration and construction of these objects is wonderful with such a wide variety all created for the nearly exactly the same purpose. Using the dotaku bell form as a starting point, I like making these thrown and altered pieces and in this case, a simple piece with an incised grasses pattern under my rich lepidolite Oribe. In making this piece, I tried to keep the lines crisp, forming graduated angles and then added lugs to either side of the pot and a thrown neck/mouth to complete the pot. Due to my shortage of materials, the glaze was sparingly and carefully brushed on to the piece once bisque with areas receiving a secondary coat around the shoulder, neck and mouth. I thought this pot came out rather well and that was the sole reason that I found the pot lepidolite worthy, as the matrial runs out I will have to be more and more selective as to where it should be used and in the mean time, the testing to get a closer version of this glaze moves ever forward.

AN INVITATION TO TEA

A long while back I wrote about an early 17th century Shigaraki chawan that belongs to the Cleveland Museum of Art and recently I found a photo of a chawan that though rather modern, has many of the same attributes of the original from form, posture and overall presence. This chawan is by Furutani Michio, made in the 1990s and has the very same attitude as if extending an invitation to tea. This is a simple bowl, high sided with casual but not overly emphasized throwing marks with a slight flair as the bowl progresses to the lip. I imagine it is a rather tactile bowl with the areas of peppered ash creating a familiar and active sensation. Though these two bowls were created centuries apart, it is obvious the Furutani Michio considered the exact same functional and aesthetic sensibilities as the 17th potter; how does the chawan feel in the hand, considering the weight, circumference, the lip, the tea pool and the appearance; basically, how do you make a chawan that appeals to all of the senses. Though if you were to put the CMA chawan and this one by Furutani Michio side by side, there are obvious differences but it is the similarities that ties the old to the new and after all, that is the best that a potter steeped in tradition can ever hope to do.