2013 Bizenyaki

X-Post from an older blog which I cannot access anymore, but didn’t want to lose this writeup. 

I wanted something unique to start a collection of Japanese ceramics so I
chose to start with one of the most distinct types of yakimono
(pottery) in Japan. Bizenyaki (-yaki means roast/baked and applies to
all ceramics as a suffix). It comes from a city in Japan called Bizen,
in the Okayama prefecture. If you went to a ceramics shop or gallery
where groups of products from all over Japan are on display, Bizen would
probably stand out and you could identify it pretty easily. There are some things like it, but not many.

In the typical sense, it is unglazed clay pottery that is primarily
between light gray and brown with dark orange or red markings or golden
metallic looking spots. These ‘designs’ are kiln effects attained during
the firing process. Bizenyaki needs about 10-14 days in the kiln, and
that requires a lot of wood to keep the fire going.

I have 2 pieces from the pottery workshop MuGenAn（夢幻庵）http://www.mugenan.co.jp
Lets start with the kyuusu (side handle teapot) because it’s an
expression of the workshop and not the artist. I purchased it (and the
yunomi below) at a Daimaru department store in Osaka, Japan.

As a little side note, department store workers in Japan are among my
favorite people to interact with. They make such a great effort for the
customer to be comfortable while browsing and are extremely
knowledgeable in their respected areas. In a Kintetsu dept store for
example, they have the man who brings the pottery into that store,
walking around answering questions for the customers.

I also bought a yunomi (tea cup) which is an artists personal
expression. The artists name is Toshimitsu Kobayashi （小橋俊允）He started at
MuGenAn when he was 24, and is currently one of the youngest
professional potters in Bizen at 36 years old. I fucking love this tea
cup — from the wavy smooth lines to the rough straight lines. The rough
feeling of clay with the smoothness of the orange scorch marks. It
looks so different from every angle, but a top or bottom view shows a
wonderful amount of symmetry.