mel jacobson on fri 26 dec 03
i am going to tell a story, and i am going
to stick with this story as the real truth.
but, then, who ever knows. ???
it is a good story however.
in the olden days in japan, there was a big
typhoon. it tore all the roofs off all the houses
around kyoto. every roof was gone. the blue
tile roof makers got really busy, they had to
replace all the tiles in kyoto...they fired their
kilns night and day, the roofers needed tiles.
so, they just opened the kilns while red hot, and
pulled the tiles out onto the ground. they did not
break. the clay was too poor. all gritty and full
of stone and sand. the potters got all the good
clay...tile makers got the junk.
one of the fancy pants tea bowl makers saw this
crazy action of opening a hot kiln, and thought..
`geez wally, if we did that, we would have a new
way to make teabowls. and, folks would pay big
bucks for them...really unusual. we could name
it after grandpa `raku`. and they did, and the rest
is history...until paul soldner got hold of it and
made it into `american raku`. he named it after
one of his lady friends. all naked and funny.
they drank wine, had alot of hot tubs and made smokey
american raku. got famous.
but, it really had little to do with japanese raku.
anyway, the family name was not raku...it
is `rokubay`. the `rokubay` family still lives in kyoto.
the work was called raku.
and, that old story goes on and on about how the family
tree goes back hundreds of years. now, how did they do
that, all those boys, all potters, year after year...no daughters,
no barren women. ???? all genius boys.
(it is called adoption, they adopted their best apprentices.)
see, if lee's sensai just loved lee, and wanted him to stay
in japan forever and be his son, well, adoption...and lee
would become `lee the next famous potter from mashiko`.
but, i guess it won't happen. lee's wife jean said that sensai
could not have him, and the dog's would not be happy.
mel
see history is easy.
From:
Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.A.
web site: my.pclink.com/~melpots
or try: http://www.pclink.com/melpots
new/ http://www.rid-a-tick.com
Lee Love on sat 27 dec 03
----- Original Message -----
From: "mel jacobson"
> i am going to tell a story, and i am going
> to stick with this story as the real truth.
> but, then, who ever knows. ???
>
> it is a good story however.
My zen teacher used to say, "We don't know if the story is true, but
we know what it is trying to tell us." I remember him commenting on this
after telling us about the story of the Zen master who was reborn many times
as a fox, because he told someone that he was not effected by karma.
>anyway, the family name was not raku...it
>is `rokubay`. the `rokubay` family still lives in kyoto.
>the work was called raku.
Chojiro was the original family name. The potters had no choice about
the name of raku, it was given to Chojiro's young apprentice Jokei by shogun
Hideyoshi six years after Chojiro's death. The seal was presented in his
memory and bore the ideograph raku, a symbol that is translated as
enjoyment, contentment, pleasure, and happiness.
So Chojiro never knew of the name Raku, but he did know the name
Tanaka, given to him directly by Sen No Rikyu (my home town is the same as
Rikyu's.) Chojiro was Chinese, married a Japanese and became a
naturalized Japanese citizen.
>if lee's sensai just loved lee, and wanted him to stay
>in japan forever and be his son, well, adoption...
These adoptions probably didn't usually have a good effect upon the
creative output of the potter. I'll write about this more later (gotta go
to the studio.)
--
Lee In Mashiko, Japan
http://Mashiko.org
Web Log (click on recent date):
http://www.livejournal.com/users/togeika/calendar
Pamela Watkins on mon 29 dec 03
Mel........Well.........
For some reason I believe your pants to be just as fancy as a tea bowl maker's.......and if you don't have any sons.....I'm up for adoption, but you'd have two fiesty boys and an ornery son-in-law......who loves the American Raku I do- and will probably love it even more when I give him the smokey hot tub Soldner story as an explaination!
There is an essence to the quest of understanding the history of what we do ( I know.... not that again.... why we do what we do is because we are intuitively driven to the challenge of mud and fire---is my sayin' .... yakitty, blah). I feel, more than in any of the other Visual Arts- Potters/Clay Artist/Sculpturist are required to research and digest the sucesses and techniques of the past, and present for that matter. Painting, yes, there is a thought of what has been and what a person can/wants to accomplish. These ideals are transferred much the same way as in pottery, but there is much more information that is to be understood in the realm of clay. From the complex technicalities - to what is personally pleasing.... is the education that any serious potter would be including in their work.
One thing that makes your pants fancy is that what I got out of your Potter's Rule book posted recently..........Do what makes you happy, don't follow....let your own hands,mind, intellect lead.......is what I read into that. I am not Japanese...........Actually, I don't know what I am, beacause I was adopted.
Peace,
Pamela
~jaq
mel jacobson wrote:
i am going to tell a story, and i am going
to stick with this story as the real truth.
but, then, who ever knows. ???
it is a good story however.
in the olden days in japan, there was a big
typhoon. it tore all the roofs off all the houses
around kyoto. every roof was gone. the blue
tile roof makers got really busy, they had to
replace all the tiles in kyoto...they fired their
kilns night and day, the roofers needed tiles.
so, they just opened the kilns while red hot, and
pulled the tiles out onto the ground. they did not
break. the clay was too poor. all gritty and full
of stone and sand. the potters got all the good
clay...tile makers got the junk.
one of the fancy pants tea bowl makers saw this
crazy action of opening a hot kiln, and thought..
`geez wally, if we did that, we would have a new
way to make teabowls. and, folks would pay big
bucks for them...really unusual. we could name
it after grandpa `raku`. and they did, and the rest
is history...until paul soldner got hold of it and
made it into `american raku`. he named it after
one of his lady friends. all naked and funny.
they drank wine, had alot of hot tubs and made smokey
american raku. got famous.
but, it really had little to do with japanese raku.
anyway, the family name was not raku...it
is `rokubay`. the `rokubay` family still lives in kyoto.
the work was called raku.
and, that old story goes on and on about how the family
tree goes back hundreds of years. now, how did they do
that, all those boys, all potters, year after year...no daughters,
no barren women. ???? all genius boys.
(it is called adoption, they adopted their best apprentices.)
see, if lee's sensai just loved lee, and wanted him to stay
in japan forever and be his son, well, adoption...and lee
would become `lee the next famous potter from mashiko`.
but, i guess it won't happen. lee's wife jean said that sensai
could not have him, and the dog's would not be happy.
mel
see history is easy.
From:
Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.A.
web site: my.pclink.com/~melpots
or try: http://www.pclink.com/melpots
new/ http://www.rid-a-tick.com
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