Richard Mahaffey on wed 19 dec 01
Mel,
A couple of weeks ago I showed slides of Suzuki Osamu's work to some
potters at a woodfire at Seabeck Washington. They were blown away by
his Shino.
I believe that Suzuki Osamu was made Ningen Kokuho (living National
Treasure) in 1994. He fires in a computer controlled gas fired down
draft (down draught to those who speak the Queen's English) kiln. I
believe that he uses the computer control to approximate the length and
atmospheric conditions of a woodfire that would have been traditional.
I have a picture of him in front of his kiln that Robert Yellin sent to
me, if anyone wants I can send a copy of that picture via email (contact
me off the list).
He says "There are many types of yakimono (pottery) in the world, the
works of the Momoyama period (around 1600 ad) are works that the
Japanese people can be proud." He takes his inspiration from the works
of that period, saying, ".......by taking inspiration from traditional
work and combining your ideas and approach you can make meaningful work
that shows your personality".
I was fortunate enough to see a show of his work in Tokyo and it was
well worth the $6.00 entry. I was amazed at the depth and breadth that
he could achieve with one type of glaze. That show had well over one
hundred pieces in it.
I do not know if he worked with Arakawa who rediscovered how of make
shino ware or not. I believe that shino had died out some time in the
1700s and Arakawa Toyozu worked for many years to rediscover the
technique of making and firing shino in Tajimi.
I would be interested in hearing of any other information anyone knows
about shino in Japan and the rediscovery of the technique.
YMMV
Rick Mahaffey
Tacoma, Washington, USA
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