These are some of the new patterns I’m playing with for the spring firing. There is much inspiration to be had from old Shino and Oribe work.
Many people don’t realize there was a great deal of cross pollination between Karatsu and Oribe in particular. There is also evidence that Furuta Oribe came to Taku at one point: one historical document mentions his name, and there are shards from the ruins of Taku Koraidani kiln that show very ‘Oribe-ish’ decoration, as well as most of a kutsugata bowl which is quite obviously made for tea ceremony.
Last year I bid on a small old Shino piece being auctioned (I bid about ¥12000, and didn’t win. The winning bid was ¥52000) the reason I wanted it was that it had a wisteria decoration on it that was virtually identical to some of the Taku Koraidani shards.
Rice plants and horse tails are both representative of Karatsu brush deco.
The birds separated by a line bisecting the dish is a typical motif in the Taku pot shards.
Below is one of the pieces that I’ve started experimenting with this year. I really like Japanese brushwork but I don’t have the decades to study it for my pottery, and I’d feel bad doing a crappy job of it. I decided to try writing English with a brush, with little regard for the shape of the letters, rather letting the flow of the patterns emerge with soft, quick uninterrupted strokes. It’s intended to be gestural more than anything else, since it is quite difficult to read even if you know what it says. It has been a big hit with customers so far, and many people have thought it was Japanese script.
This cup says: “Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” It’s a quote by 11th century mathematician and poet Omar Khayyam. This is actually more legible than some of the other pieces I’ve done.
い
Fired with cones 6,7,8 on top and bottom shelves. Pyrometer at middle shelf, didn’t display over 1215C.
Hotter on bottom than top. By cone, looks like cone 9+ on the bottom, cone 9 at the middle, and cone 8+ at the top.
Reduction strong at top shelf, weaker at middle and bottom.
棚三段、上、中、下。 オートンコーン6，7，8 使用、上:下置。温度計は中に。焼成中の温度計は1215Cを超えずが、上は8番コーンは曲がって、ヘタレ。下は8番フラット。 実際の温度は下：9+、ちゅう：9、上：8+ とみていいでしょう。
上は還元効いているようだが、中:下は中性気味。
Unloading:
Clay : Ash Blends (Lft, to Rt.: Bott.,Mid.,Top)
Stone : Ash Blends (Lft, to Rt.: Bott.,Mid.,Top)
Clay : Ash total, plus 280g Shirakawa
Stone : Ash total, plus 280g Shirakawa
Everything dumped together: Stone:Clay:Ash:Shirakawa
Stone:Ash 70:30 from top shelf (cone 8+) in the sunlight:
There is an old story around here about Nakazato Muan (12th Generation Nakazato Tarouemon, Living National Treasure) finding a really great white clay seam in the Azambaru area of Taku. Here it is in Japanese for those of you who can read it:
中里窯は昭和二十一年に石炭使用の角窯を薪用に改造して二十五年まで焼いた。
土は主に多久高麗古窯址近くの多久市北多久の荕(あざん)原(ばる)白土を胎土とした。
この土を見つけた時のエピソードが残っている。
掘り出した土を叺(かます)に詰めて荷車で重利が梶をとり、多久駅まで運ぶ途中下り坂に差し掛かった。
後押ししていた無庵は、下り坂でも押しまくった。はずみのついた車に重利はあわてて梶棒から飛びのいた。
車はそのまま道脇の田圃に突っ込み、荷車は壊れてしまった。
重利が驚いて怒鳴ると無庵は,
「この土で何を作ろうかと考えていたので下り坂に気付かなかった」と重利に謝った。
「親父が俺に謝ったのはあの時がはじめてだった」と重利はいう。
For those of you whose Japanese is a bit rusty, it goes like this:
In the year Showa 21 (1946), the Nakazato kiln was converted from a coal burning kiln to a wood burning kiln, and it was fired until Showa 25 (1950). During this time, Muan mostly used a white clay from the Azanbaru area of Taku. There is a story, told by his son Shigetoshi, from the day they discovered this clay seam (Nakazato Shigetoshi passed away in 2015, at the age of 85, so he was probably around 16 years old at the time of this story).
So they have all this clay loaded onto a cart, which Shigetoshi is pulling and his father Muan is pushing, to Taku train station.
On the way, they reach a downward slope, and without noticing, Muan keeps pushing down the slope, and they almost run into a car speeding down the road. Shigetoshi ends up diving to avoid the car, the car ends up in a rice field, and their cart ends up broken. When Shigetoshi gets angry and starts yelling, Muan says “I was so busy thinking about what I was going to make with this clay, I didn’t notice the slope.”, apologizing to Shigetoshi.
“That was the first time my father ever apologized to me.”, Shigetoshi commented.
So why, you say, are you telling me all of this? Well, the fabled white clay seam has been looked for now by other potters for decades with no luck, but due to a fortuitous event a few months ago (and several years of looking), I believe I have found it again. Here are some pictures from our excursion out to dig some sample material for testing.
Oh, and lastly, here’s a picture of one of Nakazato Muan’s coil and paddle built jars. This one is made from white clay from the clay seam pictured above. My firing tests have almost the same color as the unglazed bottom section of this jar (although it is hard to see from this dark picture).
