The following is part owe of tree articles on
travels in Japan, mart 2 ois fod Aegicsé (sci,

After some intensive touring time in the
prefecture of Ishikawa, our group boarded
the “Thunderbird Express” exiting
Kanazawa city and arriving in Kyoto afew
hours later. Kyoto is a large and well
organized two storey city. Not many tall
towers, but instead low rise neighbour-
hoods set along very narrow passageways
masquerading as strects. More reserved
and refined than Tokyo or Osaka, it seems
to be a product of a slower more consid.
ered planning process. The most notable
pottery area of Kyoto is in the Gion district
just cast of the main downtown shopping
aca of Shijo-dori and surrounding the
tourtst district onthe approach to Kiyomizu
Dera, a famous temple complex on the
eastem foothills.

This is an area Where one can walk down
anarrow alley and watch porcelain paint-
ers meticulously repeating standard pat-
terns in underglaze bloc. The home and
workshop of Kanjiro Kawai is preserved
a5 2 museum and is inconspicwously nes-
tled right next to the Geisha district. His
kilns (a Noborngama and a small enamel
kiln) are stall intact but no longer in use due
toahan on woodfiring within the city. Just
afew doors down the street however there
is sal a working pottery run by a member
of his family, Kawai is often mentioned in

Kawal Kanjire Large vise stoneware, iron,
copper red and cobalt pigments on opaque
glaze. H: approx $5.0 cen

Potters in Kyoto
by Gary Cherneff

association with his contemporarics
Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada, The
Pottery on display shows his affection for
Folk craft aesthetics but with an eclectic,
distinctly modernist twist in his use of
form and colour and decoration.

Different from
Kawai's work, the his-
toneal pottery style of
this area is called
Kiyomizu-yaki. It has
a reserved cultivated
and often delicate look
for a conservative ur-
ban upper class taste.
Frequently it is deco-
rated with slips,
underglaze painting
(blue and white} and
overglaze enamels,
Of course Kyotois the
home of the Raku tra-
dition and one is re-
minded that Ogata
Kenzan also worked
here, Both approaches
to pottery making are related to the tea
ceremony and are certainly consissent with
the aesthetic sensibilities of this city.

Our host for part of our stay in Kyoto was
Haraguchi-san who is a fine potter, With
his wife and daughter he operates a small
Japanese Inn (Ryokan) called Tenesian
{translate as“ the blue cobour of sky after
the rain”). Tenesian hovers high on the
slope above the Yasaka Shrine in
Maruyama Park, The location is sur-
rounded with temples and shrines, restau-
rants and small hillside shopping areas
offering handmade objects of all descrip-
tons,

Haraguchi-san works in a disciplined and
methodical way. Just a pleasant 4) minute
walk southward, his rumbling and crowded
studio is located in a back alley within the
busy Gion district not far from Kiyormizu—
dera, His style is based on Chinese proto-
types using crackle (cracked ice) surfaces
and blue celaden glazes (the colour after
Which his Inn is named) with large pattern
crazing. He shows ws a cross section
through a broken piece demonstrating an
exquisitely thin shell covered by a very

Haraguchi, Takushi Lidded container
Stoneware, Come |O reduction fired, iron
blue glaze with large crackle pattern
with gold luster. H: 21,8 cm

thick opaque glaze, which surprisingly
results in a somewhal weighty vessel.

His work is dependent on a careful match-
ing of clay and glaze to control coeffi-
cients of expansion. Precise glaze applica-
tion is crucial to de-
velop the correct thick-
ness for colour devel-
opment. The quality of
iron oxide is also acon-
cem in terms of purity
and particle size.
Haraguchi-san uses the
iron manufactured for
the magnetic recording
tape industry.

His vase forms can be
complex and our inecli-
nation isto assume they
are made by joining
several pieces, He pa-
tiently explains that he
must throw them out of
one piece of clay to
maintain the control
over his original concept. He laments the
lack of time to be more expressive and
spontaneous with his work, As a counter-
point to his more deliberate practice be has.
developed a technique to paint metallic
silver over a black glaze with a coarse
brush. The effect is dramatic and almost
fun. He states it is one of the easier of his
techniques to manage, Haraguchi-san ex-
hibits his work in Japan, other countries in
Asia and the United States where he will
have a show in the near future.

Although most of our trip was carefully
planned and arrangements were made for
us to visit selected potters, the stay in
Kyoto was set up a an opportunity to float
whichever way the wind took ws. One of
these serendipitous excursions took us to
the Daimuru depirtment store. [t is com-
mon that on the upper floors of these still
vibrant institutions one will encounter not
only a large section devoted to handcrafts
but also associated exhibition galleries for
fine art and crafts. As luck would have it,
on a search for traditional textiles, we
stumbled upon the opening day of an exhi-
bition by Shigaraki potter, Kato Takahiko.

See Potters in Kyoto next page