The Power of Iga--Fujioka Shuhei's Exhibition

We are excited to announce and share previews of our third
Fujioka Shuhei exhibition here at our gallery in Mishima. Iga ceramic artist Fujioka Shuhei
(b.1947) possesses the power to make mountains out of clay. He
then fires his bold creations in an anagama to 'fire-brush' on
mossy green, blue and gray natural ash glazes. These captivating
colors contrast and highlight the rich clay flavor and hi-iro
(fire color) that Iga is world-renowned for, as well as the koge
scorch colors (Iga has three famous keshiki-landscapes of hi-iro,
koge and bidoro-glass). Iga is one of those magical medieval
styles that speaks volumes of the Zen-inspired ways that are to
be found within Tea-pottery; Fujioka understands this. His heart
is pure and he loves the earth at his feet, whether it is for his
clay works, or the vegetables he grows in the fields. Like
potters of old, he too is a farmer and listens to the teachings
that nature whispers in his ears. In a nutshell, after graduating
college Fujioka went to work for a production kiln in Seto. Yet
upon seeing a Ko-Iga piece, he then knew there was no other style
for him. He apprenticed with Tanimoto Kosei before establishing
his own kiln in 1975. He's had countless solo exhibitions
throughout Japan and has been featured in numerous publications.
Fujioka is to Iga what Harada and Kakurezaki are to Bizen, except
without all the awards. He's a soft-spoken man, humble and deep;
all these qualities are in his work as well as an awe-inspiring
feel of the power of nature. Fujioka fires a small kiln for three
days and if he gets a one-third success rate for any kiln he
feels it's been a success. The high loss rate is one reason we
find so few Iga potters, it's almost loony--as Fujioka himself
says---to work in Iga with all its hurdles and failures. Yet the
successes are clay jewels, as you'll see for yourself in the
following links. We are extremely pleased to offer the world a
chance to see Fujioka's Iga world online or here at our Mishima
gallery until December 10th.

The exhibition will go online for public viewing on Tuesday of
next week, advance previews available by emailing Robert
via the web gallery at www.japanesepottery.com

In Today's Japan Times

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/member/member.html?mode=getarticle&file=fl20091114a1.html

Living National Treasure Tokuda Yasokichi III R.I.P.

http://dailynews.yahoo.co.jp/fc/domestic/obituary/?1251282436 and http://mytown.asahi.com/ishikawa/news.php?k_id=18000000908270001 Sorry in Japanese only

An Important California Exhibition/Tokyo Too...

For now: http://www.crockerartmuseum.org/exhibitions/exhib_pages/Soaring_Voices.htm
and http://www.mot-art-museum.jp/eng/2009/ito/index.html; a review in today's Japan Times:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fa20090814a1.html

Kaneko Jun's First Tokyo Exhibition

From the Asahi Newspaper, in Japanese only though: http://www.asahi.com/culture/news_culture/
Showing at Tokyo midtown until August 2nd. Photo Courtesy of Asahi Newspaper:
http://www.asahi.com/english/

A Subway ride, the past and present.....

So, I'm in Tokyo yesterday wondering how in the world could anyone survive a summer in such a concrete jungle; finished my meeting early--stay tuned for a new ceramic focused travel company, mostly for potters--and wondered should I hang around the jungle or head home to the bay. No brainer, chose the later and made a beeline for the subway station. As I'm waiting for the train to arrive who should I spy out the corner of my eye but Seto veteran ceramic artist Kato Kiyoyuki! "Kato-sensei," I call out and he is just as surprised as I was; "Oh yeah, you're the fellow I met at the Japan Ceramic Society exhibition who has a gallery in Mishima, right?" Right, and so we take the same train and then board the same bullet train, me for Mishima(45 minutes) and he to Nagoya(a few hours). I ask him what he was in Tokyo for and he replied it was an event at the Sogetsu (http://www.sogetsu.or.jp/english/index.html) and now he too couldn't wait to head on home. Time was short so I asked him what he's making these days---large pieces in Echizen--his background--family made Oribe roof tiles---and what his plans were for coming exhibitions--nothing this year, next year Tokyo----and I said he might think about taking his family history and make it the theme for his next exhibition, mainly Oribe jars as he hasn't done that for a long time. He liked that idea and even said he has some glaze vats that his pop and grandfather mixed; perfect! Perfect was not how he was feeling though that the long-running Asahi Ceramic Art Exhibition had been shut down for good, he was darn right pissed off. I then asked about growing up after WWII and if he was influenced by Sodeisha---not one iota---and that he was never impressed with Yagi Kazuo---Mr.Samza's walk was boring compared to Noguchi--and that his main influence back then was the ceramic artist Yasuhara Kimei! Now I told him how I also liked Yasuhara and that I've offered some of his works at our gallery, he liked that a lot. A few photos are seen here from a Yasuhara retrospective catalog in my library, dating from 1933-1964. I hope to have more Yasuhara one day. Well, Mishima was on the horizon and I bid sayonara, he was very pleased of our happy coincidence to meet as was I. I also hope to visit him in Seto soon, a major ceramic artist and a very nice gentleman too.
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Two debut exhibitions happening and one is Ajiki Jun at Ichihata,Matsue from July 23-29, whose chawan we were the first to show in the world and we have a few gems at www.japanesepottery now, and the Okayama debut at Tenmaya of Miyao Masayuki on now until July 21st; best to both of these emerging talents!

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.australianceramics.com and 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/