AMALGAM

There is no missing exactly who the potter is when you are looking at a piece by Fujioka Shuhei from his earliest to latest creations. Fujioka’s work has a naturally heavy appearance with the attitude and posture of being stoic to a fault, the blocky appearances and manner in which the pot is formed and articulated is almost singularly ascribed to this one potter. This particular pot is thick and sturdy, coerced into a more or less cubic form with a variety of potter’s marks across the surface like scars accrued in the process of the clay being told where to go. Beyond the basic appearance and forms, Fujioka’s firing tends to be rather distinctive as well and in this case the landscape is a mixture of thick and thin green ash married with areas of grey to black due to the charcoal bed built up around the base of the piece during the firing. What is clear from this mizusashi and most of the work of Fujioka Shuhei is the raw strength willed into existence into each pot, a perfect and unique amalgam of potter, clay, process and firing unlike no other.  

“Strength is a matter of the made up mind” - John Beecher

J-JAR

This amber glazed covered jar was a recent order, the photo is really not very good as it was quickly taken just before the pot was packed and shipped out the door. The customer was somewhat specific in that it needed to hold multiple cylindrical items, roughly six inches in length, be glazed in the golden amber and have a somewhat universal yet not distinctly any one place kind of decoration. I came up with the simple stripes and squares idea which was okay and fit the form, the glaze and went with the small, mostly decorative knob. I must admit, though I have made a lot of pots for specific purposes, this was a first as it was intended for the storage of an item best known for its medicinal and recreational use in a number of States. Again, sorry for the hasty picture but I think you likely get the idea what it looks like and what it was made to house.

THROUGH & THROUGH

Looking a bit like this stepped out of the past, this guinomi has all the characteristics that appeal to my mini-chawan criterion. The posture, proportions, volume and ratio of the “bowl” to foot all fall within the miniature chawan style guinomi and in this case, Hagi, through and through. Made by Yamato Kiyoshi, this Hagi kohiki guinomi is filled with texture and antiquity, where the landscape keeps the eye darting about where the landscape of the piece changes dramatically as you turn the form around*.    

This simple, textural guinomi was made by Yamato Kiyoshi whose social media presence keeps one up to date on his work and firings. Having established his own kiln, the Meizan-gama in 2000, his work has been widely exhibited including at a number of traditional Kogei exhibitions and at the Takashimiya Department Stores. Though I have seen a number of his pieces, just judging from this singular encounter I think it would be a safe bet that not only the work is of a high level but it is clearly rooted in the Hagi tradition while clearly part of a new generation moving the needle forward, pot by pot.

(* Not necessarily a disco song reference unless you want it to be)

CENTER OF ATTENTION

A while back I posted up a tokkuri and guinomi by Echizen potter, Nishiura Takeshi and thought it time to post a slightly more formal shot or two of the sake cup to fill in the blanks and make it the center of attention. Based on Nishiura’s “blue sand” style of glazing this guinomi fits into the Goldilocks’ zone of neither too big nor too small, perfect in my hand as well as my wife’s. The form is simple, acting as the canvas for the hekisha-yu surface with lots of activity and texture to capture one’s attention and imagination. In this context, it is almost like a small, distant moon is perched on a simple pedestal adorning a table of shelf and just waiting for your favorite spirits to complete its function. As you can see, the thick, glaze roll is the perfect place to grab this guinomi, making for a snug grip where the texture pleases an additional sense, sight. This may be a simple and compact little vessel but it does have quite a bit to say about the modern Echizen tradition and even more to say about the potter.

 

GRAVITY

Recent Kuro-Oribe style teabowl fired on its side where the laws of gravity seem a bit askew. Thrown out of a sandy small batch clay, the bowl was nudged a bit ovoid and then faceted creating a vivid rain style pattern texture around the form. The base and foot were addressed simply using my patented sharpened wedge direct from my local Lowes. The surface is built up using a number of glazes, four or five usually to create the depth, color variation and movement I have grown very fond of.     

This is available and you can see more of this teabowl over on my Trocadero marketplace;

https://www.trocadero.com/stores/albedo3studio/items/1510052/ROBUST-ORIBE-MENTORI-TEABOWL

ILLUSIONS

At first glance, this large chawan could easily be mistaken for Ki-Seto and despite knowing otherwise, I still think it looks like Ki-Seto. The truth is though, Ando Hidetake has made this as an earlier style of pottery, Ko-Mino-yaki which is what is also written on the box. The yellow, straw like color of this glaze appears like some overly zealous pointillist, filled with fine, micro-texture and varying tones of color aided by intentional potter’s marks along with subtle manipulation of the form and added spatula work. The wonderful indentation made around the bowl serves to break up the regularity of the form as well as creating a perfect area of color change adding a bit of animation to the piece. The form itself is a strong reminder of old, feudal chawan originating in the Momoyama period created to act as the perfect vessel for tea, a concept and reality that Ando takes very seriously imploring anyone who would make chawan to understand chanoyu as the basis of these pots. This chawan culminates in a simple, utilitarian kodai that compliments but does not upstage the rest of the bowl, a well-considered pedestal on which the bowl rests and feels comfortable in the hand.  

As I survey this chawan and the work of Ando Hidetake, I am reminded of this single line taken from a recent interview which adds dimension to his pottery; “The true mastery of Mino ware pottery is an illusion, but that is also why you never end up chasing it, never tire.”

FRIDAY

                       

Illustrated is a rather exceptional Oni-Iga chawan by Tsukigata Nahiko, perfect for a Friday. This chawan is neither my pot, nor my photo but I was able to handle this bowl recently on this side of the Pacific and it has everything one could want from this technique and this potter. Awash in texture and changing effects and attitudes, the large, slightly ovoid form fills the hands and is just the perfect Oni-Iga landscape where iron, ash, slip and grit all collide and commingle to make for a perfect vessel filled with strength and a robust, challenging posture. Over the years I have seen quite a few of these bowls in print and in person and I think it is safe to say, this is heads above the rest and likely would come in at a 9.5/10. Though I suspect there is always a better one out there somewhere, I have yet to see it and I am constantly on the lookout and with any luck, I will post some of my photos of this chawan, those photos are for another day.

BANDED & STAMPED II

Illustrated is another banded and stamped, or impressed covered jar from a firing a month back (?) now. Like the Oribe sets, this one is smaller and to be honest other than being a generic covered jar, not sure of the actual use though it has a lid and stuff can go in it. This one is smaller than the couple of pieces that ended up in Oribe because this was all the clay left from throwing off the hump and decided to keep in line with what had been thrown just prior as well as being a similar style lid which were also later thrown off the hump as well. I suspect that I went with the golden-brown amber glaze with hints of iron wash over the upper part and the lid just so that it wasn’t green and presented some diversity when the kiln was open though the top was filled with the amber, Oribe and soda blue. I think one of the reasons I like this glaze is that it is a No-Albany Slip, Albany Slip style glaze and has some qualities of pots by Cardew and his group that gives it a less, “now” feel. Remember, I said, “some qualities”, even if you have to squint a bit to see it.

 

BLUE WITHIN BLUE

Whenever I post up a detail image without an overall photo, I tend to get a fair amount of flack and queries, “where is the pot?”. In some small measure, I am reminded of the movie, THE GRADUATE, though in a much different context; “are you trying to seduce me?”. The truth is the it is the accumulation of all these details that make for an interesting, intriguing and good pot and this detail is no exception.     

This large Echizen tsubo was made by Nishiura Takeshi and as you can see in the ash streams, the beautiful flowing blue ash that cascades down the pot from about the halfway point of the piece, at its widest point. I think it is the fullness of the belly of this pot that helped accelerate the movement of the ash, where movement and motion almost overwhelm the viewer. The extremes of the firing process and the right choice of wood create these ash runs filled with streaks of blue within blue and covered over in random punctuations of frosty ash crystals making for a landscape akin to a wintery wonderland though perhaps from some far off, distant planet. 

Though I know I have used this quote before, Leonardo da Vinci’s brilliance best captured the importance of details in this single, solitary line; “Details make perfection, and perfection is not a detail”, well, I couldn't agree more.

COLLISION

I don’t think it can be very easy to come from a family of traditional Iga potters and balance that tradition with the idea of self and modernity. In many instances it takes distance to develop that voice, in this case moving from Mie Prefecture to Paris, France and come home again with a new understanding of tradition and personal aesthetics. In this case, the potter is Tanimoto Yoh and though this is an older work, he has clearly assembled the simplicity of a tradition with a modern take in the form of this metal lid for this koro, just like a collision of ideas, the marriage of aesthetics and materials has worked quite well and showcases a willingness to work in the moment and not necessarily in the past.   

The body of this small Iga koro was thickly potted, the form is simple showing throwing marks and then the form is broken up with incised spatula indentations creating a lobed form. The lid is hand hammered copper with abstract geometric patterns pierced through the piece, sukashi style to allow the incense within the escape and permeate the immediate area. Though a rather traditional vessel, the koro takes on a rather modern appearance where it seems like the 17^th century and the 1950s coexist in perfect harmony.