HONEST PRACTICALITY

In past blog posts I have shown the kodai and interior detail of this shark-skin (Same-gawa) Shino chawan by the late Kato Yoshiaki (1934-2019). I thought it was about time to show an overall image especially as I have be very delinquent in putting together a slideshow video of the chawan. As you can see from this photo, this chawan is really a visual and tactile exercise in texture with varying node sizes of the Shino creating vivid  semi-abstract pattern, the largest of which wrap around the bowl creating an animated feel. I think it is easy to admit this is no masterpiece chawan but thehonest practicality, the function and the sum of its parts make for a chawan that has both spirit and quality that appeals to the eye and the interesting experience one has with the pot in hand and truth be told, not every masterwork can say the same.   

This chawan was photographed on my desk corner as the light of the day was just about to yield to dusk which created this slightly more complex visage of what is actually going on with the glaze. The entire surface, inside and out and into the myriad of crevices is covered in a slight sheen of wetness caused by ash melting on the surface giving the bowl a truly antique, feudal feel without obscuring any of the detail created by the glazes of varying thicknesses contracting about the surface. The form of the bowl is rather simple, with an approachable lip and a practically cut foot and a simple glaze that all add up to a exercise in structure, texture and ultimately character adding a new dimension to the classical definition of what we think of as Tokoname-yaki.   

"I search for the realness, the real feeling of a subject, all the texture around it.... I always want to see the third dimension of something... I want to come alive with the object."    Andrew Wyeth

THE FACETED ONE

This Oribe style faceted teabowl came out of the kiln a short while ago, the first I had made in a couple of months (?) and as I was unloading the kiln I was particularly piqued by the fact that this bowl, the faceted one was in a kiln load of nothing but round stuff. I am not saying there is anything wrong with round pots, they seem to have set the standard for several millennium but now and again something not like everything else does in fact catch the eye. If memory serves me, this teabowl was thrown out of what was left of throwing lids off the hump and seemed just about the right amount of clay for the task and once faceted, tooled and fired is just the right weight for a bowl of its size which as always is on the larger side. I was pleased by the way the glaze worked and also of the posture of the bowl which appears to all be moving stage left in this photo. One of the realities of making these faceted bowls is that you can't really be 100% sure of what you will end up with, some disappoint and are wedged up, some are good and others seem to work straight across the board, I would like to think that this one off does exactly that.

YESTERDAY IS TOMORROW

I think this is about as classic a modern Madara-Karatsu chawan as you may encounter. Made by Fujinoki Dohei (b.1949) the archetypical form is well matched by the surface with a dark, iron undeglaze and the creaming, cascading qualities of the streaked tan overglaze that covers the interior and runs down the exterior terminating just prior to the foot and possible disaster. Though I may be prejudice, I think this bowl has that 17th century feel which most Karatsu potters strive for while keeping an eye toward the future realizing that yesterday is tomorrow. I put together this short video slideshow to give a three dimensional sense to the form and surface and hope it doesn't fall short from that goal.     

"Today instead of just carrying on the traditions set by olden makers, we are also eager to improve and make our own designs, thus continuing the old customs and traditions with a modern touch. " Nishikawa Ikko as recorded in the book, KARATSU  by Johanna Becker, O.S.B.

TWICE ENCOUNTERED

I first encountered this chawan quite a few years back, perhaps the very early 90s at the home of Dr. Fred Baekeland where it was part of about 20 pieces that he had pulled out for us to look at and possibly buy. Since Shino was one of our first true loves, when we left we ended up with a slide and Polaroid of the chawan and thought about it on and off for some time but never seemed to be at the right place and time to acquire it. Fast forward to the burgeoning age of the internet and a  second chance encounter with the very same chawan almost a decade later and astronomically less expensive, needless to say that we purchased it. I should say that Dr. Baekeland's original stamp of approval certainly helped and what we knew at the time that it was purchased out of an exhibition in Gifu the same year that we say it so it really didn't take a lot of convincing to bid.

Made by Mino traditional potter, Kawai Takehiko (b.1940) this chawan is a simple exercise in putting together a Momoyama ideal with a fresh and honest dose of a potter's vision where the straight sided form is interrupted by vivid and animated throwing lines that is a perfect foil for its glaze texture and coloration.  Though not a chawan you may classify as adventurous or necessarily breaking from tradition, this bowl has that sense of being a distillation of all the invaluable and difficult work of the 20th century pioneers that brought Shino back to its rightful place in the hierarchy of chadogu and modern pottery in general. Big, bold, practical and functional best describe this chawan in hand where despite its simplicity or perhaps because of it, this piece sits well in the hand and with the eye, it is so pleasing because it doesn't try too hard and gets all the fundamentals just about right and I think that is about all you can ask for out of two pounds of clay, a few ounces of glaze materials and a few thousand degrees of temperature.

THE BRIGHT SIDE(?)

This was another day with a late start for a variety of reasons but I did get to the studio and better late than never. After throwing some covered serving bowls and a few vase forms I turned my attention to a group of pitchers which was intended for three and three only. The first three were basically straight sided jugs with slightly flared feet and mouths which went well and I decided to make one more pitcher and went with a slightly different form as you can see in the photo. Thrown in about 4.5 lbs of stoneware the pitcher is under 14" tall with a bit of curve to the belly and a mouth flares out just a bit. Once I was done with this jug, I took turns pulling out the clay and making a spout for each piece, once they dry a bit I will take my sponge and soften the edges all around to get a more satisfying and clean look that will also be less likely to chip off after the pot is glaze fired. The final step will be to tool the foot and then pull a handle off the pot. I got another slow start but better to get something done than sit around and think about what I need to get done. I am told by someone who knows a lot more than me that this is looking on the bright side of life.

ONE, THAN TWO

I can't help but be reminded by a somewhat animated form straight out of ALICE IN WONDERLAND as I look at this highly Yuteki-Temmoku Koro by Fukumori Morihiko. As is clear to see in the photo all of the ridges and lines make excellent use of how this glaze works on pottery with all of the dark areas counterbalanced by the coppery, shadowy visual texture on all of the highpoints and edges that help make up this form. Though it may be a bit hard to see in this photo, each oilspot cell is filled with the same coppery nucleus that roves around the edges of the piece tying the form together and at the same time keeping the various elements of the form distinctly defined and contained.

I had my first encounter with Fukumori's work back in the early 90s where a dealer in Kyoto had a number of his wonderful guinomi and tokkuri as well as a few koro and chawan, a single mizusashi and two or three (?) vases. Perhaps in total we handled about 25 pieces and the hook was sunk as it were. On that day we bought two guinomi both of which disappeared out of our luggage on the way home but by sheer happenstance a Japanese dealer offered us a gourd form vase just after we returned home so we had our first piece and have not looked back. This koro was our anniversary gift to each other two years ago and little did we know that only one week later we would find another koro on the ubiquitous auction website for a price that was and is quite easy to live with. Hopefully I can get around to making a few slideshow videos of the two koro at some point in the future.

UNINTENDED MOTION

I find this Shigaraki mizusashi rather easy to like, the feel is old, antique and simple in execution as if it was part of a great number of the same style made over many years by a potter which in reality is most likely the truth. Made by Ogawa Seiho, this humble and practical mizusashi has a wonderful stone like form with a surface that does justice to the bones of the pot, a narrative that circles the piece with an array of effects from dry ash to a fine tsuchi-aji resembling an ancient emaki-mono in three dimensions. Though solid and seemingly sedentary the simple mark made by the pot creates a slight amount of movement  in the same way drawing a circle in a pond may yield unintended motion. Contemplative and rich in visual value it is quite easy to see this pot in use during tea ceremony possessing a calming and unifying spirit that many pots strive for and far fewer achieve.  

TOTS

I got a late start today as we finally were able to get our first vaccine with the second coming in just over a month and we are glad to get this started. After traveling to Utica a quick stop at the grocery store and PO totally wiped out the morning. I finally got back to some pots that I threw on Friday and covered up really well and it was back to work.    

There is no arguing that this is a simple design but someone had to do it and I suspect the time of the season factored in just a bit. Combining black slip, sgraffito and white slip trailed accents, this snowberry design really is simple but works nicely on my terra cotta pieces and seems to adapt well to a wide variety of forms and sizes. Admittedly this is a bit time consuming as well as having to work at varying times to get the three techniques worked out with the final process having to come in just under the wire otherwise the white dots pop off in the bisque. Okay, it's not rocket science but  despite the time it takes there is something always oddly satisfying about working in sequence, perhaps  eight teabowls, eight  three pound v-bowls and four smaller covered serving bowls will do the trick. Not a lot of work for one day unless it is Friday but just the right amount to pass the day spent listening to a thumb-drive filled with a hundred hours of 80s tunes.

DEVIL MAY CARE (SHINO)

I don't know a lot about the potter Kido Sadaaki (b. 1941) other than he fires in Shigaraki and just outside of Osaka in Daito City and that he started making pots later in life in the 1990s. Kido left a regular business job to pursue pottery and immediately honed in on first Shino-yaki and then Shigaraki pottery with there being a bit of overlap as you can see in this photo. This particular chawan was first glazed and then placed in a wood kiln where it would appear to have been toward the front of the kiln (perhaps 1/3 of the way back) where it received a fair amount of ash creating this vivid and tumultuous surface where feldspar and ash painted a very clear narrative across the surface. Where the thinker crusty or running ash didn't take hold, the white Shino is coated in a thin and glistening layer of green, glassy ash that adds a luminescent quality to the bowl. In many respects, like the works of Tsukigata Nahiko and Kumano Kuroemon, Kido fires his kiln(s) in a way to maximize its ferocity and imbue the Shino surface with qualities that are normally reserved for wood kiln firings at rather intense heat. I think that given the rather unique glazing and firing of Kido Sadaaki what he may lack in natural affinity for clay he more than makes up for in bravado and his devil may care approach to just getting the work made and fired and there is certainly something to be said about embarking on a long journey one step at a time especially if it is in double-time.

RUBBED & DUSTED

I have to admit when I first saw the mark on this pot and the box hakogaki I had to take a second look. Though the box clearly identifies the angular and stylized henko as temmoku, I think I was still expecting a kannyu style seiji pot to emerge from within. This crisp and well modeled henko which was fired in a noborigama was made by seiji specialist Watanabe Akihiko at some point in the 1990s and clear shows a highly meticulous craftsman and a master of glazing which is written all over this pot. Defined as kiln change temmoku, this wonderful glaze is a dark brown or greenish surface depending on the light and the surface is literally alive with shimmering tea dust style effects that sparkle in the sunlight as seen here and which reminds me of a lacquer artist who got a little overly enthusiastic with the maki-e in an attempt to portray some distant far off galaxy. 

The boundaries of the piece are clearly defined in a brilliant tessha style iron where presumably the potter thinned the glaze by rubbing it a bit on the high points to achieve this effect that is sheer perfection on the henko, a detail that separates this pot from any near competitors. This henko has a great size and the geometry of the pot presents a strong, stable and formal presentation that truly is a contrast to the lush, curvy forms blanketed in seiji glazes that Watanabe is perhaps best known for today though at their core of striving for perfection and surface based on iron, both styles obviously spring from the same dedicated spirit.