I was not able to write about this exciting workshop, because a lot happened last week with the preparation for my “Sakura” exhibition at the end of this month and my 2-week trip to the US.

On March the 4th and 5th I attended a Master Class Ceramics Workshop given by David and Margaret Frith at the International School of the Sacred School in Steve Tootell’s ceramics room and organized by Steve Tootell and the JapanASCD (Assoc. of Supervision and Curriculum Development).

David and Margaret are potters in stoneware and porcelain. They set up their first workshop in 1963. Their reputations are well established. David with his mastery of the potter’s wheel makes majestic pieces decorated with his personal style of waxed motifs under heavy reduction over- glazes and glaze trailing. Margaret concentrates on individual porcelain with carved decoration or colored glazes as well as producing a comprehensive range of domestic ware and decorative stoneware. Their pottery is housed in an 18th. century woollen mill which was later used as a brewery hence the name The Malt House. The mill is situated on the banks of the river Ystrad, on the outskirts of the market town of Denbigh, in the beautiful Vale of Clwyd in North Wales, UK. Their website is: http://www.pottery.demon.co.uk/

They taught us all kinds of throwing techniques and personalized it for each attendee. They showed us their way of throwing and trimming pots and the next day talked about decoration. For me some things were very familiar and I learned some different techniques especially for throwing big pots. They have 48 years of experience in making pots! I will add some YOU TUBE videos I took at the end of this blog, but next time it will be one movie. I have to learn to edit movies and put them together as one.

Steve introducing Margaret and David.

Margaret throwing.

David pulling up the clay for throwing a big platter.

David throwing a big vase in two parts. The base he threw the day before and the top he threw first separately and then turned it around and put it on the base. He is finishes it directly.

Some YOU TUBE MOVIES:

1. David and Margaret both throwing a plate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_QJUsxzu08

2. David pulling up clay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td5GNJoX2P0

3. David throwing a big vase: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzn4t5Gf-I8

4. Margaret explaining decoration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzEE0hR3qaE

On the picture, where you see the yellow boat underneath the bridge, is the fish market.

The auctions usually end around 7:00 a.m. Afterwards, the purchased fish is either loaded onto trucks to be shipped to the next destination, or on small carts and moved to the many shops located inside of the market. There the shop owners cut and prepare the products for retail. In case of large fish, for example tuna and swordfish, cutting and preparation is elaborate. Frozen tuna and swordfish are often cut with large band saws, and fresh tuna is carved with extremely long knives (some well over a meter in length) called Oroshi hocho, maguro-bocho, or Hancho hocho.

There are two distinct sections of the market as a whole. The “inner market” (jonai shijo) is the licensed wholesale market, where the auctions and most of the processing of the fish take place, and where licensed wholesale dealers (approximately 900 of them) operate small stalls.

The “outer market” (jogai shijo) is a mixture of wholesale and retail shops that sell Japanese kitchen tools, restaurant supplies, groceries, and seafood, and many restaurants, especially sushi restaurants. Most of the shops in the outer market close by the early afternoon, and in the inner market even earlier.

And of course we had a delicious brunch in a Sushi bar with the freshest fish ever!

The first market in Tokyo was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu (the shogun who established Edo as capital and united the whole of Japan) during the Edo period to provide food for Edo castle (as Tokyo was known until the 1870s). Tokugawa Ieyasu invited fishermen from Osaka to Edo in order to provide fish for the castle. Fish not bought by the castle was sold near the Nihonbashi bridge, at a market called uogashi (literally, “fish quay”) which was one of many specialized wholesale markets that lined the canals of Edo.

Kusakabe-san showed us how.

In the evening we enjoyed our last dinner together in a Balinese restaurant.

Milan, Ixchel, Euan, Jennifer, Helen, Catherine, Kasakabe-san, Steve, Micha and Titus.

Lisa, Laura, Marianne, Swanica, Heather, Rebecca, Debi, and Jennifer. Unfortunately, Amber is missing, but with her due date for her pregnancy almost being up, she always went home to rest after our full days.

Steve Tootell was the organizer of the workshop. The two Master Potters were Euan Craig and Kasakabe-san, the Master Chef was Hashimoto Touru and the Tea Master was Saito Noriko. I helped with setting up and with throwing: anything what needed to be done.

Kusakabe-san is throwing teabowls “Chawan” and tea caddies “Chaire”.

I had turned the camera vertically, but understand now that you can’t do that. But it shows very well what they are presenting.

Euan throws teaceremony food dishes “Chakai seki dori”.

A small example with drawing explanations of the many chawan and chaire Kusakabe-san threw.

The Yufuku Gallery

The “Four Season Horsehair Vase”

The invitation card for the Exhibition for Ceramics + Food

This is the “Mars Plate” Aoyama-san will use for the presentation of food.

Small announcement.

The exhibition.

Setting with different plates.

One of the awards for individual work.

Reflection bowls: put on a mirror and you can see the bottom of the piece.

The chef specially prepared a menu to go with Euan’s dinnerware and Euan designed his ware to go with this food. A nice collaboration.

This is Euan’s show and dinner invitation.

Euan.

I can’t quite remember which dish came first and the first couple of dishes I forgot to photograph, but the dishes were beautiful and the food was marvelous.

The main dish with the pot as plate upside down.

He fires his ware only one time in an wood/soda kiln. The lines on his dishes are a kind of rice stalks.

If you want to know more about Euan, look on his website: http://www.d1.dion.ne.jp/~euan/
and on some former blogs of 7/11/06, when I had my visiting workshop in Mashiko and 2/26/07, when Euan gave a workshop in Mashiko.

Here, he turned the dish back up and used it as Soba dish; a Japanese noodle.

The desert in a triangle cut thrown dish.

This is the Main Gate “Sangedatsumon”. It is majestic and magnificent and remains the only architectural reminder of the early days of the Edo Period, 17-18-19th century, when the original Zojoji was constructed on a prodigious scale.

Zojoji was founded in 1393 as an orthodox and fundamental seminary for Jodo shu in the Kanto (east Japan) region. In 1590 the shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa relocated it to Tokyo to establish his government and Zojoji became the family temple of the Tokugawa family. It continued to be the center to govern the religious studies and activities of Jodo shu, as it is still today. In those days, its precincts covered an area of 826,000 square meters with the big cathedral temple and 48 smaller ones, about 150 grammar schools, and 3000 priests and novices resided here. Zojoji was profoundly affected by the anti-Buddhist movement and World War II in the 20st century, but the cathedral and some temples and buildings have been rebuilt.

The cathedral temple.

The Amida Buddha statue inside the Zojoji.

One of the small shrines to pray for children.

All the statues wear knitted hats and bibs with colorful fans.

The open air theater from the back. In the back of the picture is the big front gate.

A view from the other side shows the big cathedral temple.

Tokyo Tower at night with the Cathedral.

The early origins of Noh theater were mostly folk-type forms of rustic entertainment.
In 1375, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the powerful dynastic shogun and ruler of all Japan, experienced an early form of Noh performed by Kanami Kiyotsugu and his twelve year old son Zeami Motokiyo. It is due to Yoshimitsu’s patronage and interest in early Noh that this dramatic form was able to develop into the highly refined, serene theater.
Zeami, a dramatist, is the prime figure in Noh, having written 100 of the 204 plays, many of which are still regularly performed to this day. He also wrote a very famous treatise in 1423 on the skills and methods necessary for a Noh actor, and that document is still valid study for young actors. What Zeami, inspired by his father, managed to create, was a theater of the Muromachi period (1336-1573), written in the upper-class language of the fourteenth century, but which looked back to the supposed Golden Age of the Heian Period (794-1185), by basing plays on people, events and even poetry of that era creating texts of astonishing richness and opacity. Noh exists today in a form almost unchanged since Zeami’s day.

One of the blessings before and for the Noh plays.
The blessings were half an hour long.

Three priests accompanied the blessings on their instruments: very interesting sounds.

One of the most striking aspects of the Noh is that the shite, the main actor, may wear a mask, as may his companions, or tsure. This occurs when the main character is an old man, a youth, a woman, or a supernatural character. Tsure accompany the shite in certain plays, and if they represent one of these groups, they will also be masked, but the shite will not wear a mask if his character is an adult male.

Masks are carved from wood, often cedar, which is then painted, and include some of the most moving works of sculptural art in Japan, The masks are carved in a subtle way, so that with small changes of inclination they appear to show different emotions.

This is the mask from Yo-Kihi “Yang Kuei-fei”.
The emperor is mourning her dead and a magician brings proof of her being on a magic island by a bejeweled hair ornament and then the magician/Yo-Kihi dances for the emperor.

The bejeweled hair ornament.

The magician/Yo-Kihi dances.

The other ubiquitous prop is the fan, which in a symbolic theater such as Noh, can represent all manner of other objects, such as bottles, swords, pipes, letters walking sticks and so on.

The costumes are adaptations of those of the 15th century. Some, particularly those of characters representing the nobility, are sumptuous, with gold and silver thread

The play will be performed on a stage open on three sides, and a pine tree behind. A sort of walkway, called the hashigakari leads onto the stage right position from an entrance doorway at right angles to the backboard. Along the hashigakari are three small pine trees, and these define areas where the actor may pause to deliver lines, before arriving on the main roofed stage, which is about six metres square.

One of the small pine trees.

Ranged along in front of the back is a group of musicians whose instruments include a flute, a shoulder drum, a hip drum and sometimes a stick drum. The musicians are responsible for the otherworldly, strange music which accompanies dance and recitation alike. At the right angles to the back, there is the chorus of eight to twelve chanters arranged in two rows and it is their job to take over the narration of the story, or the lines of the main character if he is engaged in a dance. These elements all contribute to a cohesive whole which creates a richly textured background against which the play is enacted, and since no scenery, few props and only a small cast appears, the imagination of the audience is left to roam freely.

In general, Japanese Noh plays are not very dramatic, although they are beautiful, since the text is full of poetical allusions and the dances, though slow, are extremely elegant. It is this very beauty which makes Noh a living art form still, over six hundred years after it developed.

This represents a magical lion in the last play, who dances among peony flowers before a stone bridge, which leads to a paradise.

Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take pictures during the performance. Those are photos from a brochure.