pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on tue 30 sep 03
the whole Masters thing and Tea Bowls and so on...
Hi Lee,
Your analogy of Tea Bowl-Masters and 'Rock Stars', maybe
puts matters
into some more sensible perspective for me than had
contemplateing this in other terms.
Although there are some differences, of course...between the
two!
Too Lee, (and I will cease any point by point rebuttal with
this,) I never said 'all' the money was in
Pottery...(Please!)
Anyway...
I just spent a half hour trying to find in various
web-searches, some mentions of the kind of prices as
Master's Work tends to fetch...and found nothing.
I did find a lot of images or Work from various Japanese
Potters as are maybe
well known, but not Masters perhaps, or National Treasures
My having looked on the basis of the words 'Tea
Bowls', and I enjoyed looking at a variety of charming
images, as ever I would.
Maybe the stories as were brought back from Japan in 1993,
by the
fellow I knew somewhat, who had studied under one of the
very successful
'Masters' had got some burr under my Saddle more than it
should have.
Otherwise, I have not felt myself to be writeing anything
'inflamatory'...but rather just being my jocular self as
ever, and just as if you and I were setting somewhere, and
most likely we'd be in stitches off and on with humor if we
were, or maybe not, but I think we would unless you are a
total stick-in-the-mud, and, I do not think you are.
It is just that now and then, when it comes up, I tend to
think "Jeeze, that is a lot of dough for a cute little Tea
Bowl especially of a kind that a competant fellow could
readily make a few hundred of them in a day, which WAS at
one time, a big part of their charm, no?
Their extempore and all?
Yours,
Phil
Las Vegas
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lee Love"
> Hi Phil,
>
> I knew you could write in a less inflammatory way.
Thank you!
> You deserve a thoughtful response.
>
> There are very few rich potters in Japan. You are
mistaken when you
> think that this pottery where all the money is. A very
few people doing
> financially well happens in any craft appreciated here in
Japan. It's
> like Rock Stars or BasketBall players back in America.
Lotsa people play a
> guitar or own a basketball, but not many of them make much
money from it.
> When you say you heard a bout a potter who owned Rolexes
and Rolls, it made
> me think of the apocryphal "Welfare Cadillacs." I grew
up with poor people
> and none of them owned Cadillacs, but it makes great
fodder for Straw Men
> arguments.
>
> Most of my potter friends, even ones who
studied with famous
> people, are have a difficult time getting by without other
income, often
> from a spouse's "steady job." A potter friend once
said to me, when I
> commented that I noticed that there were many more women
truck drivers in
> Japan that back home, that many potter's wives started
driving truck after
> the economic Bubble burst. The other thing that is
different here, is
> that potters all seem to be Type A. The are busy all
the time. Their
> schedule isn't as "relaxed" as potter's lives seem to be
back home. Part
> of this is just the economic struggle. I don't socialize
much with other
> potters because we are so busy. The Mashiko pottery fair
is next month and
> I plan to go to do research about getting into it in the
spring. It will
> be the first time I get a chance to speak to many of them,
since the Spring
> pottery fair. Back home, being a potter is a
counter-culture lifestyle.
> Here in Japan, it is just another way to make a living.
>
> In Takuji Hamada's (Shoji Hamada's grandson)
lecture from NCECA
> 2002, he begins by showing slides of two vases: One, an
Onta vase and the
> other a garishly decorated Satsuma vase. He explains,
that while we might
> think the Mingei type Onta piece is what the "people's"
tastes were during
> the Meiji era, they actually, the Satsuma piece was.
>
> During the Meiji, when Japan was looking for ways
to earn foreign
> currency, they focused on making pottery for export.
This mass production
> was done at the large centers like Seto, Aichi Prefecture
and Tajimi, Gifu
> Prefecture. The little one person or one family kilns
were on the decline.
> When the large storage jars were no longer needed, many of
them turned to
> making knickknacks.
>
> Basically, what Mingei did was make people
look at the
> indigenous folk pottery. This could not be mass
produced by the
> factories, and gave the small individual potterys an
audience for their
> work. Mingei helped create the environment for
studio-artist potters,
> that did not exist before this time. It enabled many
people to make a
> modest living doing a lot of hard work.
>
> I hope this clears up the what it is actually like
being a potter
> here in Japan. I have to go now and trim some pots.
>
> --
> Lee In Mashiko, Japan Lee@Mashiko.org
>
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