STAMP OF APPROVAL

I recently received this Ko-Iga style chawan by Kojima Kenji from the same collector that the last two chawan by the same potter came from. This kutsu-gata chawan is a bit more rugged than the last two with the face a bit scorched by the ash and flame that then wraps around the body of the piece to embrace the rear. The reverse is highlighted by ash drips, an old Iga style impressed decorative device and three rather nice shell imprinted scars showing how the chawan was oriented in the kiln during the intense firing. There is a rather pleasant sense of movement in the form obviously aided by the undulation of the lip and the way in which the ash moved before being frozen in that moment where the kiln reached its crescendo of temperature before starting to cool. This appearance may be medieval but you can see Kojima Kenji's hands all over this chawan which like most of his other bowls, there is a stoic pragmatism to the pot that gives way to enjoyment of form, texture, posture, balance and even color. You can see a few more photos of this chawan over at my Trocadero marketplace;

https://www.trocadero.com/stores/albedo3studio/items/1441706/EXHIBITED-KO-IGA-CHAWAN-BY-KOJIMA-KENJI

MOMENTO TEMPORIS

I found this chawan on the ubiquitous auction site a while back and despite being an older example I liked the pot and the variety of surface activity that it displays. Made by Kon Chiharu back in the mid-1990s, this pot was made in Niigata but is clearly Shigaraki in design with a generous coating of ash on the face and on the interior back wall as well as running ash moving what appears to be horizontal in nature due to the way the pot was fired. I like the movement of the surface which animates the bowl form and the addition of the shell scars and foot perpetually wet from the ash help create a bowl that has something to look at with every turn of the bowl despite its age. I put together this quick video slideshow to help fill in the blanks and give a full picture of what the bowl is like in hand, hope it does just that.

JUST THROWN

Straight forward terra cotta teapot decorated in abstrakt resist with a deep black and vivid coloration surrounding the surface leaving the handle, gallery, lid and base to frame the pot. I like making simple teapots, just the body of the piece, a lid, a spout and a pulled medieval style round handle assembled without much fuss to give you a rather easy to use, practical pot. Though I do drink tea it really was my time working around Bill Klock that cemented my interest in teapots as while working he would stop and make tea the English way which always, always included a handmade teapot by him, students or other potters he knew. If that wasn't quite enough there were the classic teapots that Warren MacKenzie made and the sleek thrown and altered ones by Jeff Oestriech that gave me at the very least a foundation from which to work. It may be these particular times but though I have made all kinds of teapots from hardly functional, thrown and altered and hand built moving in to a new cycle of just plain thrown and assembled teapots can really satisfy the soul.

SOME OLD POT

We actually had a fair amount of sunshine today, something in short supply through the frigid months of January and February giving way to the march thaw. What surprised me was that the sun was pouring through the windows and illuminating this old Bizen tsubo that we have on the floor which Khan and Jun before him loves to rub up against while walking the perimeter of the room. I know I have photos of this old, feudal jar somewhere but didn't want to miss the opportunity to take a few shots of it bathed in the rays of the sun and here is just one of the pictures. The jar has a rather nice presence and scale and is about 60% covered in ash from the wood firing process with the rear being that reddish to almost purple flashing, fire color that makes for a well dressed pot. As you can see the lip is rather sturdy and strong in its construction and like the shoulder, both are impressed with various decorative devices all the way around which makes it just a tiny bit different than the rest of the old, Edo to Meiji period Bizen pottery that I am familiar with. 

 We found this pot in the window of an antique store on one of the antique streets in Cleveland that we explored on our second day of officially living in Cleveland. Initially the pot didn't have a price but after a couple of visits we agreed on a ridiculously fair price (for us) and it spent its time in Cleveland on the landing of our stairway to our apartment until it found its way to various houses in Cleveland, NH, CT, PA, VA and now in central NY though sans baggage labels. The one constant that has remained is that first Jun and now Khan both liked the jar as both a place for a solo rub down and as less than stealthy vantage point to sit on; at least we are all in agreement that we enjoy having this tsubo around for various reasons even if it is just some old pot.

TIME TRAVEL

I was looking at a pot recently and as I was enthralled with the exterior, I noticed this singular, solitary green drip and on a whim stuck my phone upside down into the pot and took this photo, of course I asked permission first. The result is this perfect bidoro droplet, an emerald created by ash and the intense heat inside an anagama perhaps 30 years ago but still as fresh, wet and gravity defying as the day it came out of the kiln. I was reminded about looking for glimpses of beauty where ever they may be and those simple moments of pleasure as they sometimes crash in to you like this chance encounter with simplest of details that can immediately transport you to another time and place. Maybe Einstein was wrong about time travel and the proof is in this diminutive time machine. 

Looking just like dripping ice, surrounded by still pristine snow, ash built up around the shoulders and mouth of this Shino mizusashi and in just this one spot, the ash made its way to the edge of the lip where it is now sentenced to hang for whatever percentage of eternity this ceramic vessel may have. If you look carefully at the right side of the photo you can see the slight channel, stained with a hint of brown ash where the ash made its way to the underside of the lip and dripped into the interior during the height of the firing also creating a large, deep green pool on the floor of the interior but this one detail was my focus though there are always more details to share down the line including a slideshow video at some point. There are way too many details, pictures and projects but fingers crossed, I should get to some of them at some place in time and maybe this time machine will lend a hand. 

"Why hurry over beautiful things? Why not linger and enjoy them?" Clara Schumann

BACK TO BASICS

I think of this particular glazing technique as going back to the basics and perhaps at the end of the day everything leads us back to that point whether it is apparent or not. It certainly doesn't have to be this glaze combination but it is rather simple, calming and effective by using two glazes and wax resist the form is accentuated by this simple decoration. Using temmoku and medieval green, the surface works perfectly with a wide array of thrown round forms and the geometry can be quite striking especially in bright sunlight. I have to admit that as I keep trying to fully understand altering and faceting pots going back to this basic, simply thrown, simply tooled and simply glazed work is like a calm in the middle of a storm and given these rather unsettling times who doesn't need a few minutes of uninterrupted peace and quiet for the mind?

朝鮮唐津

Many years back I was acquainted with the work of Karatsu potter, Nakatsuka Takaya in a short article written by Robert Yellin on his website and as a result was able to obtain a rather modest mizusashi at that time. Ever since that time I have kept my eye out for pieces by Nakatsuka and when the right piece popped up, we in turn would try to add it to our small collection though admittedly, because of the time difference and location most pieces have gotten away. About a year ago we spotted this pretty Chosen-Karatsu style chaire on a gallery site and inquired and well, here it is now a fitting companion to the mizusashi we collected all those years back.

As you can see in the photo, this chaire has a rather pleasant, articulated gourd form with what I would suggest are wonderful proportions and the glaze creates balanced areas of multi-color cascading tendrils blending in to large patches of soft, buttery plains of creamy taupe making for a rather splendid presentation. Adding this chaire to the mizusashi leaves us in need of a nice Karatsu chawan to make a fitting trio of pots by Nakatsuka Takaya as the only thing better than two is three.

A PICTURE TAKEN

There is a pottery collector that I know who takes wonderful photographs of places he has been and things that capture his attention and eye. Though I am far less traveled than he, I have been to quite a few places but many or most without a camera or predating the digital revolution. In taking many of the detail shots of pots that come my way, I find that sometimes these pictures remind me of times and places in those travels, snow covered mountains while snowshoeing and even ice climbing, hikes, visits to famous monuments and places and in the case of this photo, the last ditch attempt for the lake ice to hold out under the intense scrutiny of the oncoming spring sun.

 

This detail is of the interior of a Kumano Kuroemon guinomi, areas of built up ash have turned to glass that have been affected by the Kuma-Shino that served as a base coat to what havoc the firing would bring. I am reminded of the wet and fragile ice that covers the melting ice on Lake Champlain every day until it finally succumbs to a new season, everyday more ice melts and when the temperatures dip down below freezing the top, slushy layer once again becomes ice. Like in this photo, the ice is distinct and come daybreak, it becomes increasing wet until it is just a layer of water on up to two feet of ice underneath. Every detail photo has the possibility to evoke these memories and associations, unique to each viewer, these keshiki landscapes unlock the imaginary and distant landscapes of our memory and there are those that insist, "it's only clay!"

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

AUSTERE

Stark, solitary and contemplative come to mid as I look at this rather nice Bizen vase on display with a seasonal Ume branch sent from a friend. I like the austerity of the setting and the wabi-sabi feel to the vase completed through its use. This Bizen vase was made by Isezaki Kyo the forth son and student of the late Isezaki Mitsuru, he also studied under Shibaoka Kouichi (1988-1993). I received three photos of this vase in use and choose this particular one because I immediately responded to the variety of decoration created during the firing from the subtle botamochi areas to the soft coloration caused by the ash during the wood firing please there is this wonderful collaboration of simplicity of setting, vessel and branch. I enjoy the sparse nature of the vase, arrangement and image and as we brace for yet more snow here it is a reminder that our spring is hopefully not so distant.

When the spring has come

First flowering at my dwelling is

The plum blossom

In solitude, will gaze on it

And spend the day in springtime!        Yamonoue (no) Okura (660 - 733)

TWO FOR ONE

Okay, let me explain, when I had this chawan to photograph, I took three different styles of pictures, using tungsten lighting, all natural daylight and direct sunlight. When I was deciding to post a photo of this Nakayama Naoki Ki-Seto chawan I went back and forth between the first two styles and in the end decided on this composite photo to show just how entirely different this bowl looks depending on the light source. What I can tell you, irrespective of the lighting is that this chawan is the perfect blend of crusty ash built up on the face and a wet and almost luscious pale yellow-green glaze that shows off the clay and form to its fullest. 

As you can clearly see in the picture, this chawan has that distinctive Arakawa Toyozo influenced form whom Nakayama studied with and is a classic example of the infused Momoyama meets modern mindset that prevails within the Mino traditions to this day. In addition to the strong form and provocative surface there is a myriad of "special" effects caused from ash freely moving about the kiln that all conspire to create a miniature universe within the chawan all coalescing in the area of the mikomi, tea pool, details and the whole of the object all on display to please both the eye and the hand. At the end of the day I am continually pleased by the variations of appearance that manifest at differing times of day and location that in the end make me feel like the owner received two chawan for the price of one and that I suspect is quite a bargain. 

"The bargain is not a bargain, or what was not a bargain is a bargain, just as you please." Titus Maccius Plautus (Sounds a bit like Shakespeare, don't you think?)