OLD JAR, MODERN TIMES

Let's face it, who doesn't love a medieval jar, be it Bizen, Echizen, Tokoname, Tamba, Iga or Shigaraki. A good old jar processes qualities that are taken for granted beyond form, they are imbued with honesty, purpose, utility and humility and these characteristics are written across the form and surface in an unconscious and anonymous way. When I first saw this jar it was as if seeing an antique tsubo, created with tradition and medieval aesthetics in mind but in this case, this is a modern jar, made in modern times but the ideals would seem to be the same between the old and the new.    

This Shigaraki tsubo was made by Ogawa Seiho and was clearly patterned after any number of medieval archetypes in which perfection was not the goal but rather he has dedicated his pottery making after the very same qualities that are admired in old pots. This tsubo is a rather nice size with an ever so slightly leaning posture and the bulk of the face and much of the shoulder around the pot is covered in a rich coat of ash much of which is running down the form creating a perpetual sense of movement. Perhaps one of the best features is the neck and moth and how they were made and terminate showing a casual and unconscious approach to working the clay which again harkens back to the pottery of medieval times culminating visually in an old jar made in modern times. All in all this is a simple, humble pot that despite those characteristics it has a nobility and strength that is likely the most important attribute of jars of antiquity that are the bedrock of this tradition old and new.

LOBING IS A VALID SCRABBLE WORD

Quite some time ago I put up a post, FRACTURED ICE and thought it time to fill in some blanks with an overall shot of the seiji vase. The surface of this elegant bottle is layered in fractured kannyu style celadon and was made by a modern master of the style, Minegishi Seiko. Blending Chinese archetypes with Japanese modernism, Minegishi creates wonderful forms based on a wide array of objects with this lobed pot ever so slightly resembling an up ended melon with a graceful neck and mouth. As you can plainly see the channels created by lobing the form have filled with a thicker, more opaque glaze and create a stunning series of overlapping and fractured cells that create a vertical line adding lift and movement to the form. As sturdy and full as the form is, the neck and mouth seem fragile and delicate by comparison which makes for a wonderful contrast between the various elements of the pot with the iron showing through the thinned glaze around the mouth being the final touch to bring the piece to life. I think that if I were going to sum up Minegishi's work in a simple descriptive sentence it would likely be; his pottery embodies a well crafted blend of luxury and nobility with a hint of pure elegance as a garnish. 

FWIW, lobing is a valid Scrabble word and could come in handle for six points.

EGGSHELL

Illustrated is a faceted teabowl that I made from one of my test clays, intended as a mixture of porcelain and stoneware. As you can see it came out a sort of eggshell color punctuated over the entire surface is bits of grog to give it as much flavor and texture as possible. This bowl was thrown a bit thick and rather loosely prior to being very quickly faced to open up the clay and expose the texture and inclusions hidden within. In the texture department, every cut and piece of grog can be felt in the hand as I used the thinnest coat of an alkaline clear glaze as possible in an effort to preserve the qualities of the bowl freshly thrown and faceted in which I think it succeeded. Though with all of the inclusions visible, it is hard to call define this teabowl as simple but it does have a rather simple, elemental quality that I rather enjoy, a sort of broken purity, now it is time to make more clay and move on to something just a bit bigger.

PERSONAL PREFERENCES

I put up a post with a detail shot of this rather nice Ko-Mino kinuta hanaire by Ando Hidetake and thought it was more than time for an overall shot even if it was hastily set up and relying on the vestiges of the days sunlight. For my part this vase is exactly what I would like to see from a kinuta form; the proportions are really great and the way the throwing marks around the neck and the well executed facets run down the body present a sense of motion wherever you decide to focus your attention is certainly a plus. The face of the piece has accumulated a nice crust of ash up and down the form with a noticeable display on the neck which terminates on the shoulder giving way to areas of glassy ash and myriads of tiny, gem-like nodules that seem to be percolating up from the surface.   

The glaze continues down the faceted body and where it terminates there is a sheen of greyish-blue ash that turns in to a rich fire color (hi-iro) across the rear of the piece. I think the masterful faceting works wonders with Ando's glazing style and his Ko-Mino sensibilities and firing producing a pot that does not disappoint at any level and writes a wonderful narrative across the landscape of the form. As I pointed out previously this is my favorite style of Ando Hidetake's work, a personal preference if you will and I always enjoy running in to his Ko-Mino pots and the conversation that ensues.  

"But our preferences do not determine what's true."  Carl Sagan

SIX MONTHS?

Whenever I think about Surface (Seamail) Mail, I can't help but think about the classic Split Enz song; SIX MONTHS IN A LEAKY BOAT and though I realize it is not a totally fair or accurate characterization, at least the six months part feels about right. As a means of economy, I have been using Surface Post (Seamail) for quite some time specifically when it comes to having books shipped from Japan to the US, it cost a fraction of EMS and though it takes some time, most books if packed well enough aren't all that fragile. As a general rule of thumb I don't start to get worried until about three months have passed and though not as traceable as EMS, you know exactly when it shipped and then it pops up on the radar when it arrives in the US  and along the way to your residence.  The illustrated group of catalogues, 41 in total arrived recently and though not a huge amount of stuff, it is still heavy enough with two hardcover catalogues including the Hamada chawan book celebrating his 77th birthday, the cost adds up as quickly as the grams do. I would recommend Surface Mail for books, catalogues and not fragile objects especially given our current circumstances with shipping and of course, Godzilla approves as well.

CHATTERING

I have to admit, the word chatter is not one that I can think I have spoken out loud in a very long time and to show you where my mind goes, that word immediately makes me think of two movies in particular; HELLRAISER and WORLD WAR Z. Having gotten that out of the way, I saw my first really in person piece of Onda-yaki, a small covered jam jar with chattering decoration at the home of Mitzie Verne way back in the early 1990s and thought I would like to give that a try. Using banding steel that I had been making trimming tools out of, I proceeded to make a tobi-kanna and set about chattering some terra cotta and stoneware pots. Off and on I have done this style of decoration but it always seems to be a passing fancy where I make a dozen to twenty pots and I move on to something else.       

Fast forward and while watching a movie there was a large Onda covered jar covered in chattering and I thought this would work for porcelain with black slip and decided to make a new tool that would chatter just a bit differently relying on just the very end of the tool to make the marks as you see them in these photos. I think this has a quirky look to it and fits the piece as well as can be expected and now I wonder if it will be another five years before I do this again?       

As a cautionary tale when I first tried this I had been making pots a little over a year or so and not particularly adept at using my homemade tool, that may still apply. In the studio at CSU was a guy who couldn't help copy just everything he would see and he set off make 40 or 50 pieces with chattering decoration and once bisque set about glazing them all in temmoku! Being the tech I gladly loading the gas kiln with his pieces and mine glazed in an amber celadon and a 1-2-3 celadon, when they came out he was just dumb founded as all the decoration was for naught. A word to the wise, use a transparent glaze of some sort or another if you are using this technique.

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY

What is immediately apparent in this photo is that the color is off, a bit yellow as my "wonder" bulb" finally bite the bust and I had to resort to an ordinary 100 watt bulb right out of the kitchen cupboard for a lighting source. That being said I had a window of opportunity to take some pictures of this classic, little Bizen chaire by Konishi Toko I and I decided this would have to do. Made in the classic hidasuki, fire marks style, this pot was wrapped in some treated straw prior to being fired and that caused the wonderful flashing around the pot creating an abstract and seemingly random design. This chaire is based on a bamboo node and was meticulously thrown of a fine grained clay ending in this formal and precise form which is an excellent vehicle for the hidasuki technique and its time in a noborigama firing. The surface as you can see is nearly perfectly smooth allowing the atmosphere during the firing and the straw wrapping to paint the canvas as closely as intended by the potter. This gem-like chaire has a partner in crime, a bamboo style mizusashi (made at a different time) with just vivid flashing and fuming that creates a stellar surface and like this pot, both add another paragraph to the expanding tome that is Bizen.

MOONLIGHT

Illustrated is a very early Tsukigata Nahiko carved and painted (gofun?) wood panel, the photo comes out of a catalogue from the early 1970s. Reading "moonlight" this panel has a chipped away texture that surrounds the two kanji and signature which pop off the panel due to the bright white nature of the pigment used to highlight the recessed carving. Over the years I have seen a number of Tsukigata Nahiko carved panels and though they were never as expensive as his best pottery work, one can imagine the time and effort needed to carve and finish these panels made them out of the reach for most collectors during his lifetime.

The majority of panels that I have seen seem to run about 80 to 100cm in length and are carved out of dense, unfinished wood "planks" for lack of a better term with fairly deep recessed carving in the thick and heavy wood. I am not sure how well one's sculpting ability translates to wood carving but Tsukigata also carved stone as evidenced by large carved stone steles on his studio property, presumably a skill he learned in part from his father. There are three distinct styles of Tsukigata's wood panels, the first is as you see here where the decoration or calligraphy is in sunken relief, the next being where he painted black or white ink or pigment directly on a flat surface and lastly, raised relief where the imagery seems to float above the base which has been carved away. What I can tell you is that despite the panel being a bit stiff, not nearly as organic as later pieces this particular panel is a benchmark of some amazing things to come.

TEST BUT VERIFY

Today was the type of Monday that really isn't quite 100% conducive to getting the week started, it reminds me of a four cylinder engine firing on only three. I spent the day running two bisque kiln and making up four glazes getting ready to glaze, perhaps even less fun that making glaze. On top of these chores I also made up a group of 50 gram test glazes for pods and several 200 to 500 gram batches to test out glazes on yunomi as there will be a number of tests and design tests filling the nooks and crannies of the upcoming glaze firings. With any luck, maybe I'll get something to pan out.   

Illustrated is one of the test bowl made up of a rather sandy white stoneware that I am testing, making it up in 10 lbs dry batches. The surface was scrapped open to expose the sand and then I impressed squares in opposing corners to break up the surfaces a bit. As with much of the testing these days this will end up being glazed in the Kuro-Oribe style with a very slight twist that will highlight the center of each plane a bit more. For this specific surface the ongoing testing is two-fold; tweak the overall look and verify that the technique is repeatable which is always a good attribute for a new glaze.

ONE SMALL PACKAGE

Illustrated is a rather well fired Iga chaire by Furutani Michio that showcases the brilliance of his firing and potting skills all in this one small package. The form has just enough visual tension, just enough volume, wonderful posture and a rich and unique surface to create a modern and expressionist  tour de force. Beyond the purely aesthetic observations, this chaire is perfect for the task at hand in size and scale of the aperture, as with most of Furutani Michio's pots, despite all other considerations, function, utility are the primary reasoning behind the creation of his brilliant Shigaraki and Iga works. As for the surface, the chaire is covered in ash from simple thin dusted ash to areas of thick built up glaze which that collects on the shoulder before creating these vivid rivulets of colors one doesn't see all that often, especially on such a confined space. At the end of the day, this pot is another highly successful piece by a master of his craft and art who despite his early passing has left not only a substantial body of work but has added his unique mark on the two traditions that he worked within and influenced his contemporaries and generations to come.  

(I had meant to post this up on July 20th but just couldn't find the photo. A few days late but here it is.)