Trip to Japan
October-November 2019
I had the good fortune to travel around Japan and meet some wonderful potters.
This is the studio of potter Taketoshi Ito.
His remarkable ability to coax the finest of cuts and details out of porcelain clay has captivated my imagination for years. His works often play with existing light and shadow, capturing and holding light or projecting cathedral-like shadows onto the walls.
Ito-san's young family was a joy to experience. His wife Chika, a skilled potter and decorator in her own right, volunteered readily to help me with transportation and translation. I will never forget her kindness and openness, or the patient way she nourished her daughter, Noin, in every moment of the day.
This porcelain cup is an incredible representation of Ito San's relationship with his tools and medium. The control he exhibits in these delicate cuts and the fulfilled trust with the glaze to fill the cavities is awe-inspiring.
"I carry the sun in a golden cup, the moon in a silver bag" W.B. Yeats
Noin-chan and her loving parents.
One of the breathtaking views from potter Ken Matsuzaki's tea house.
This is master potter Ken Matsuzaki's cat, Kombu (Seaweed). Matsuzaki-san says that Kombu finds him in his studio and tells him when it is time to go home and rest for the evening.
Urara-san runs a gallery in Mashiko while taking care of her children and also making her own pottery.
I feel very privileged to have met potter Tomoo Hamada. He is the grandson of Shoji Hamada, named a living national treasure of Japan for his ceramic work. Stepping onto the Hamada compound I felt peace and delight. The team of workers attended to a variety of clay processes and I was invited to share a cup of tea while I asked some questions about Mr. Hamada's process and philosophy. His best advice was not to go against your nature. We should be as wildflowers tousled by the wind. If something is not going well, he waits to come back to it.
A view of one of the studios run by expat John Dix in Sasayama. Dix was hosting an internationally attended firing workshop and it was a joy to break bread with the vivid participants. I was treated to a fine dinner where potters of all ages from 11 different countries sat at the same table and shared stories.
Mr. John Dix has a trained eye for truly good pots: the kind that have a life of their own and aren't merely bent to the will of the potter. He lets himself be guided by the clay and the kiln, citing serendipity as his philosophy.
A view from the kiln shed in Sasayama.
John Dix's preferred tools.
Akiko Tao-san is a potter living in Mashiko and perpetually commuting 6 hours via train to Hiroshima to tend to her ill mother. I was fortunate to meet her as she was firing pots for an upcoming show in Mashiko. Tao-san said that she sells everything she makes at this event and it is her most anticipated show of the year.
Tao-san was quick to negate my calling her an artist. Her goal is to make pots as perfect in their utility as possible and to her that is not an art. She was recommended by esteemed artists who spoke of her work with reverence. AND she has two pieces in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London!
The gorgeous emerald ash glaze that Tao-san favored ran rampant in my dreams for months.
She feels joy in her ability to support herself through her pot-making. Her cottage and studio are gorgeous and humble, at the top of a very steep hill that demands the most of a car's transmission. At the end of our visit she directed us to another potter in Mashiko and set out to guide us there but suffered a flat tire. She was cheerful in her response to our offer of help, she would easily take care of it herself.
Tao-san's kiln, firing.
This is the life I hope to build with my own work. Quiet, humble, and intentional. No more and no less than necessary.