Last week, I went again to Mashiko to pick up some of my Anagama wood fired “Chawans” tea bowls, glazed with Lee Love’s glazes and fired in his Anagama. Three pictures of the same chawan. The foot. The bowl is made by “tebineri”, handpinching. Thi ... Continue Reading
My first down draft kiln firing in Lee Love’s kiln. First, we clean the shelves from the former firing, so the shelves will be even and nice. Lee paints the shelves with kiln wash, so, when accidents happen, and pots stick, it will be easier to take of the shelf. Then w ... Continue Reading
Of course we also visited Lee’s workshop and anagama in which we did a firing. Lee Love is the organizer of this Mashiko gathering workshop in visiting a lot of prominent Mashiko potters. He did a wonderful job and I think we were all able to see some divinity in the master ... Continue Reading
Other potters we visited are Baba Yochiko, Euan Craig and Douglas Black. Yochiko-san works in her studio by herself. She was an apprentice “deshi” from another quite well-known potter from Mashiko: Takauchi Shugo. Her work is beautiful: white slip with on top an ele ... Continue Reading
One morning, we bought a “bento box” lunch and drove to the Saimyoji temple, way up a hill. Hank, Lee, Jim and Craig. Saimyoji Temple, also known Tokka-san Fumin-in, is a temple of the Busan Shingon School. Its main revered figure is the Eleven-Faced Kanon Bosatsu w ... Continue Reading
We also visited Kamiya Shouichi. He lives also in Mashiko and is a 5 minute walk away from Furuki-san, the tougei place we stayed at. He is a former apprentice “deshi” of Shimaoka-san and worked with David McDonald. Shimaoko had told him, when he was going to build ... Continue Reading
Matsuzaki Ken is born in 1950 in Tokyo and graduated from the Fine Arts Ceramics Department at Tamegawa University in 1972. Directly after that, he apprenticed for five years with Shimaoka Tatsuzo. He established his own kiln, “YuShin (Playful Spirit)” in 1978. Matsu ... Continue Reading
Shimaoka Tatsuzo is born in 1919 in Tokyo. When Shimaoka was a teenager , wondering what to do when he grew up, he visited the Nihon Mingeikan (Japan Folk Crafts Museum in Tokyo) in 1938. There he discovered the beauty of Mingei advocated by Yanagi Soetsu (1889-1961). Shimaoka ha ... Continue Reading
In the next couple of days, we visited Hamada Shinsaku, Shimaoka Tatsuzo and Ken Matsuzaki. Hamada Shinsaku is Hamada’s Shoji’s second son. He is born in 1929 in Tokyo. He studied Art and Craft at Waseda University before becoming an apprentice with his father at his ... Continue Reading
On Sunday, we visited Gerd Knapper: a potter, ceramic artist, sculpture and person of lots of other trades: painter and decorator, restorer, art metal workshop assistant, sailor, photographer and architect. David, Lee, Hank, Craig, Jean (Lee’s wife), Jim, Swanica, Mike and ... Continue Reading
