Two Books...

Two books fell into my lap recently; one more of a pamphlet that tackles a weighty subject, namely the Zen aesthetic term of wabi and its association with the chawan-tea bowl. Veteran Australian potter Milton Moon has put together 'Wabi and the Chawan' and its a gem of a 15-page monograph. Moon contacted me some months ago asking for photos and I sent over a few, ironically the first one in the pamphlet is a Ki-Seto chawan by Kagami Shukai. Others in the book are Kako Katsumi, Kakurezaki Ryuichi, Maruta Munehiko, and of course Moon's own chawan. The pamphlet was published by the Australian Ceramics Association and Milton Moon; web sites for both are www.australainceramics.com and http://www.miltonmoon.com/
The other book was given to me last Saturday at a memorial service in Shizuoka city, see www.jerryyellin.com. The author of 'Japanese Military Sake Cups 1894-1945' Dan King was in attendance and was kind enough to sign a copy of his book for me. These small sake cups were used for all kinds of military purposes and the book notes these with many photos as well as prices of each piece. Published by Shiffer Publishing and available at amazon.com I do believe. Dan is a historian and his web site is http://www.historicalconsulting.com/

Kagami Shukai.......Sad News

It is with great shock and sadness that I write this; just today I learned that one of the greatest Ki-Seto potters of all time, a great man and gentleman, a man who was always so very kind to me when I visited him and he here to our gallery, a humble man who had just built a new kiln and workshop, ready to get back to work after many kiln failures........Kagami Shukai, was killed in a car accident last month on the 21st. A sad day here in Mishima. I wrote this some years ago:
http://www.e-yakimono.net/html/trio-sv.html

Edo is Not Old.......Part II

Continuing with some photos from the previous entry......

Edo is Not Old.......

Last Sunday--May 17th--the Mishima branch of the national Japan Ceramic Society (Nihon Toji Kyokai, in Japanese only: http://www.j-ceramic.jp/index.html) held a special event, that being a lecture by Aichi Prefecture Ceramic Museum's chief curator Inoue Kikuo alongside an exhibition of fine old pots belonging to Mishima members, myself included. Inoue gave a fine talk--despite not being able to hook up his Mac for slides!--on early 8th century to 16th century pottery, notaby styles that oringinated in the Seto region. I had to leave the lecture halfway as we all had to 'monitor' the exhibition room where each member brought in a piece or two from their collections. Wow, some really neat old jars dating from the Yayoi peried to 19th century Edo, with styles such as Atsumi, Tokoname, Bizen, and Seto. I brought in a Muromachi period Bizen jar that is now seen on our gallery at www.japanesepottery.com. After the lecture Inoue walked around the exhibition commenting on each piece; he picked up one 19th century Seto mizusashi and said this is very young! All agreed, yes quite new that one is and they didn't even pay any attention to a 1960s Bizen chawan! For a pot to be old here it has to be at least 300 years okd, preferably early 1700s and backwards. Here are a few photos from the exhibition with parts two and three to follow, I can only upload five photos here. The Aichi Prefecture Ceramic Museum home page is: http://www.pref.aichi.jp/touji/index_e.html

Koinuma Michio--Significant Objects--Exhibition

Please see this link:http://shizuokagourmet.wordpress.com/

Tokyo Art Fair at the Fabulous International Forum, Tokyo

Recovery time took longer than expected, yet I guess that's what happens when one has 45,000 people(!) passing by a booth; what a grand parade! I felt like I was sitting in a bus, traveling the country and at the end of eight hours was exhausted for having done 'nothing.' Well, that's not exactly true as of the 45,000 quite a few folks did stop in and many new contacts were made, some pieces sold, and some still being pondered. Visitors ran the gamut of Tokyo from little ones (one eight-year old pointed at me and told his mother, "that's the gaijin who was on NHK about Bizen!) to the respected elders, of whom one couple took home a grand Wakimoto from us. All in all well worth it but for a few complaints. With over 100 dealers and a large layout not that well organized, visitors tired very easily not knowing what to expect as they passed each booth, afterall this was an art fair with everything from noble ancient Chinese pots to three-titted wooden pigs, and all in between---I'm sure you can imagine---with no discernible pattern. Luckily for my booth on one side there was a great Ukiyo-e booth (30 million yen Sharaku anyone?), yet unluckily in the next booth was a huge painting of a yellow cow and then all kinds of assorted smaller paintings of the same ilk. Get the picture? And this was for the whole event. So, I'm hoping next year some order is prescribed and the cows and pigs will be in one area and we can hang with the more.......refined arts. And there you have it.

Art Fair, Tokyo and the passing of Nakazato...

Japan's largest art fair commences next week from April 2-5 and for the first time my gallery will be exhibiting. The event is at one of Tokyo's most outstanding buildings--The International Forum--right in front of Yurakucho station. My good friend Steve Beimel recently wrote about it and that can be read here, scroll down: http://www.japanlivingarts.com/ The Art Fair, Tokyo's homepage can be viewed here: http://www.artfairtokyo.com/en/index.html If you happen to find yourself in Tokyo please do stop by!

A few weeks ago I read in the paper that Nakazato Tarouemon XIII(Houan) passed away on March 12th at the age of 85, in Japanese only: http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/nnp/item/82723