INTERSECTION

A pottery collector friend of mine who only collects American pots asked me recently what it is about Japanese pots that has seduced me away from more local pieces. I have thought about this for quite some time and I think for me there is a visual and visceral texture and authenticity to the pieces that I like, they use tradition as a springboard and many rarely stray too far from that ideal but just enough to give voice to the clay which I should also note can be said for wide swaths of Western pottery. It is not that Japanese pottery is exotic but rather elemental and honest with dashes of panache, subtlety and rusticity that ends up being conversant to my sensibility, that creates an emotional resonance that I am truly captivated by.   

Case in point is this provocative Oni-Shino chawan by Tsukigata Nahiko (NMPNMP). Illustrated in several sources, this is the pinnacle of Oni-Shino and is that perfect amalgam of tradition and modernity where creativity, concept, talent and technique all intersect. Though these very same attributes occur in Western pottery, perhaps it is the vessel, the forms and the wellspring of tradition that has my gaze focused on the east, I am not 100% sure but I can say, very little is as elemental and exhilarating like that of an exceptional example of a modern Japanese chawan.

ALIGNMENT

Illustrated is a well-articulated Ki-Seto  tokkuri by Iwatsuki Takemitsu which creates an atmosphere a bit less like a polite homage to tradition and more like a bold, deliberate challenge. In a contemporary ceramic landscape dominated by the likes of Hori Ichiro, Hayashi Kyosuke and the late Kagami Shukai, much of Ki-Seto can sometimes settle into a predictable, uniform amber glaze but Takemitsu seems to ask how far the medium’s inherent instability can be embraced without losing its classic sensibility creating his own unique pathway within this tradition.          

The tokkuri’s surface invites a slow, tactile inspection and rather than aiming for the slick, pristine finish often associated with modern productions, Takemitsu develops a semi-wet landscape with lobes and potter’s mark that breathe life into the simple form. A dense network of fine crackle weaves across the body, breaking the light and giving the glaze a soft, aged complexity punctuated by tanpan copper and tetsu iron element creating stark, semi-abstract imagery floating freely, organically presenting an almost moody gravity. Where the glaze thickens, the green deepens into dark, smoky undertones, recording the subtle shifts of atmosphere within the kiln. What emerges is a surface and form that feels alive precisely because it isn't entirely controlled, where the original form has been broken down at the potter’s hand where what could have been static has become motion. Takemitsu demonstrates that the modern evolution of Ki-Seto doesn't require reinventing its historical vocabulary, but rather trusting that the alignment of potter, clay, glaze and fire reveal something processed with a spirit on the verge of losing total control.         

On a more personal note, I collected this Ki-Seto tokkuri in the hopes that it would match up well with the guinomi I have by the same potter. Though perhaps a bit wetter in appearance, it seemed like a safe bet that they would be close enough to be comfortable together with a slightly more organic tokkuri and a bit more formal guinomi could pull together in the same space. Well, at the moment that is just not to be, after quite a bit of preliminary searching, I just don’t seem to be able to locate the guinomi off hand. To be fair, we don’t have a huge collection but our stored pieces and empty wood boxes are all in our designated “storage facility”, the closet and my current thought process is that somewhere at the very back corner rests the piece I am looking for. Locating this guinomi will just have to wait even though its potential mate is calling out for it. All good things come to he who waits (?).

WBW 7222

This is a perfect covered jar for a way back Wednesday post. This was made in 2012 and if you are inclined, it is posted twice before on my blog, once as a group of bisque and once as a group recently fired and unloaded. I like making this form and the stepped lid with the ring knob which was always well suited for my temmoku and iron glazes. The movement created in the melting iron glaze animates the surface a bit and is a nice contrast to the rich deep temmoku base glaze. As a side note, for whatever reason, none exactly that spring to mind, this is still sitting on a shelf in the studio and every now and again I give it a good dusting only to remember that it is filled with boxes of Orton pyrometric cones that I rarely use; some for low, low temperatures for enamels and some cone 11 and cone 12, most of which I may not ever get around to using but never is a very, very long time.

FORTUITOUS MOMENT

In case you haven’t noticed from my posts on my I, POTTER blog as well as on Facebook and Instagram, I have a real thing for shadows (and sunlight) and their interplay with pottery and their unique forms. This may have started many decades ago when I first read Tanizaki’s IN PRAISE OF SHADOWS, but honestly, it likely goes back to my childhood. I think I was equally fascinated by the sight of row after row of medieval knight toy soldiers as I was the shadows they cast in the late afternoon.  This photo is one of those fortuitous moments where I walked into the room at just the right moment to get a fairly cool shot of this exceptional slab henko by Furutani Michio. The shadow and light show off the form and surface yet keep it cloaked in darkness and a bit of mystery adding a deep narration regarding this pot if only you let your mind wander in that direction. Though this is not exactly a great photo, the idea is great to bring thought and contemplation of potter, pottery and idyllic wood fired landscape to the very forefront, it is simple yet filled with subtleties, nuances and effects that tell its story, born out of clay and fire and the creative ingenuity of a master potter just like Furutani Michio.     

"Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty."  Tanizaki Junichiro

MIMITSUKI

The are very few pots so elemental and imbued with an absolute physical presence as that of wood-fired pottery where the nearly endless and varying landscapes effects paint a picture in fire and ash. Though not fired to the excess of some modern pieces, this exceptional mimitsuki hanaire (lugged flower vase) by the twentieth-century master Konishi Heinai II shows off a sense of seasoned nobility where restraint and just the right touch bring the clay to life. In its creation, a duality has been born, a stark contrast exists between its faces and the reverse is locked in where you witness the raw and unapologetic narrative of a Momoyama-inspired vision brought to life.    

The surface of this hanaire is a simple lesson in the wabi-sabi aesthetic, the front facade presents an asymmetric landscape of scorched clay, vertical scoring lines, and trails of natural ash glaze that runs down its flank, simple and evocative in its presentation. It would be quite difficult to mistake this vase as passive pottery; it is a lively conversation and active confrontation with the fire. The flared and dramatic mouth is cloaked in an array of effects from matt, smokey charcoal to a richer, wetter green ash pointing to the all-natural accumulation characteristic of intense wood firings. As you turn your attention around the pot the transition reveals the build-up of ash on one side versus the dry, charcoal scorched planes on the other, embodying a sense of unrefined, timeless decay that celebrates imperfection, impermanence, and the simple integrity of the medium with what I think of as slightly ominous undertones.    

In the historical vocabulary of Iga-yaki, the mimitsuki or attached "ears" (lugs) are far from mere ornamentation they reflect a certain expected nobility in Iga-yaki. Historically rooted in Iga’s past, these prominent, hand-sculpted lugs, though just a vestige of their original actual function, add a visible, structural balance to the form and serve to anchor the vessel’s posture as well as break up the verticality of the pot. These aesthetic additions provide a structural counterweight to the often heavily distorted, paddled and gently manipulated cylindrical nature of the piece coordinating with the neck, mouth and lip to give these pieces their iconic, architectural silhouette.        

Without these lugs, many Iga vase forms risks losing their distinct attitude and some measure of its identity; they frame the vessel’s torso, break up any uniformity and help spotlight its deliberate, hand-altered asymmetry. Drawing on his master’s instruction and centuries of established and well-known Iga archetypes, Konishi Heinai II understood that these elements must be entirely natural and feel deeply integrated, acting as extensions forged directly from the core rather than mere contrived afterthoughts and additions. Ultimately, Heinai II was committed to keeping medieval traditions alive, approaching the kiln with a mindset that valued historical archetypes while demanding a visceral, textured finish, form and presence. This hanaire stands as a testament to that philosophy—a powerful work that commands attention through sheer physical presence and its look back into the past.

DIVERSITY

As odd as it may sound, my mind tells me that there shouldn’t be that huge of a difference between my Hagi white that has a pinch of tin and the clear glaze that I use related to what they do with the various iron treatment I use. That being said, what I think and what I can observe are two very different outcomes. The effects, nuances and subtleties have ended up being quite different and if you look back on any posts that mention Hagi white and iron washes you can see how much it differs that the clear and iron washes.  This illustrated faceted yunomi was first glazed in a medium application of my clear glaze and then had two washes of iron applied over. The real appear is the iron melts into the clear and then gravity and heat take over and the surface begins to migrate south and, in this movement, it creates its own visual movement and nice cascading effects. Though my mind continues to conflate the two surfaces, I am glad they are different and look quite different as well, though it does get a bit of a problem making up and store even more glazes, the cost of diversity, I guess.

WAY BACK

This is one of those pictures from way back, perhaps 1990? This was our first trip to Shigaraki Valley and of course no trek there would be complete without stopping at the studio of Otani Shiro. I don’t need to recount the unplanned travel itinerary that we were rescued from by the daughter of Honiwa Rakunyu II but luckily Otani-san was home and willing to indulge two foreigners. This is a photo from the inside of his studio where he showed us some recent pots and the tools and clay he used, it was quite an education and awakening as was the stops at a number of other potters in the region. Seeing all these pots first hand, mostly for the first time ever was such a rewarding experience, who could have every imagined that something like the internet would come along and make all of these interactions far easier, all at the end of a keyboard?

IT IS WHAT IT IS

I got down to the wire and was rather involved in writing a post that it became quite clear I was not going to get finished and posted up. It happens especially when you try to draw in ceramic critics like Hayashiya Seizo and Koyama Fujio, this will have to wait for another day. Instead, I thought I would put up this obtuse and mysterious sunlit and shadowy picture of a large Hagi henko by Yamato Tsutomu, enjoy?

THE USUAL CIRCUMSTANCES

This is another one of those possible one-off pieces where what is normally black came out this intriguing and complimentary red-brown. Thrown and slightly manipulated, the teabowl was finished off using a sharpened piece of wood to cut the foot before some slip was given a rough vertical kushime treatment. Next came my amber glaze over which was “atomized” a thickish wash of iron. As mentioned, under all the usual circumstances the surface goes to a blackish sheen and in this case it obviously did not though the temperature and atmosphere were not altered in the least. In my opinion, this color combination works well and it shows off a rich contrast between the iron and amber areas. Just my luck, another thing to try to figure out and reproduce and it's not like there isn’t enough other things to chase down. I think I will take it just one day at a time.

WIZARDRY

The description of this piece is simple enough, Shinsha mizusashi but as you look closely at the complex surface you see subtle hints of Jun ware from the Song and Yuan dynasties. Like the simple description, this simple form is full of volume, looking like it is about to burst under the tension of the form and animated surface which has several layers of depth with movement and crystals popping up through the uppermost layers, though clearly Chinese inspired, you can see and imagine the skill of a modern Japanese potter behind this work.       

This shinsha mizusashi was made by Nakajima Hitoshi, the older brother of Living national Treasure Nakajima Hiroshi and despite his untimely and early death, his skill level, sense of form and surface and his remarkable glaze wizardry shine in most encounters with his work. Nakajima Hitoshi was precise in his throwing and glazing and his forms are models of perfection where most pots show no defects of line or scale, where lids fit perfectly and feet are exactingly well cut and attended to. Despite my description and the potter’s precision, his pots are not mechanical replicas of the antecedents, his forms show a strength and determination of his particular voice and can normally be picked out of the crowd if you will. As a point to a previous blog post, Nakajima Hitoshi is another one of those “hidden gems”, a potter lesser-known outside of Japan but whose work is of such a high standard in terms of every aspect yet are blanketed in a distinctly Japanese idiom. This potter and his work deserve a rigorous visual and aesthetic inquiry as in my humble opinion, he most likely would have been Ningen Kokuho had fate not had a hand in other considerations.