2016 marks the 35th Anniversary of having finished a three year apprenticeship in Mashiko at the Shimaoka Pottery. It was a powerful three years in Japan and although I was working in the pottery everyday sometimes I think the least of what I absorbed was about pottery making. I learned to speak Japanese well enough to get by and that in turn allowed me to begin to see the world through the lens of another culture. I was introduced, via many small lessons, to the power, beauty and confines of history. I learned about the value of solitude, loneliness and patience. I now understand more about the power of restraint, the value of homage as expressive artistic tools. I learned sometimes humbling but valuable and interesting lessons in prejudice from a minorities point of view, very important to me to this day.
Perhaps most importantly my values and belief system were challenged everyday in small and large ways. It was a three year examination of what it meant to navigate daily using western based values, in a culture that did not necessarily embrace the same. In fact a great deal of what informs a daily Japanese code of conduct seemed to run diametrically opposed to decsisions I would make out of mine. Those subtle frequent cultural collissions were very dynamic moments for me that forced self examination & growth. The idea of culture had become larger and more complex that I had ever imagined and I am eternally grateful to Mr. Shimaoka and his family and all of the workers for their generosity in having me at the pottery for three years.
Workers
Mr. Shimaoka's pottery studio manager
Using a traditional method of preparing a large platter for shipping with rice straw bumpers
In the pottery trimming a large platter
With Mr. Shimaoka at a kiln unloading
Pounding harvested buckwheat
In the pottery slowly revealing the inlaid rope texture by shaving back layers of white slip
Pottery
Shigaraki Clay, Sea Shell Pattern 1980
Shigaraki Clay 1980
Date Unknown
Cobalt Brush Work 1981
Platters being sorted and packed for exhibition in Osaka 1979
Fine rope inlay pattern. 1978
Inlay Rope Pattern Ash glaze 1978
Salt Glaze Cobalt Slip 1980
Grounds
interior: clay recycling, mixing area
kiln shed roof
drying in prep for a bisque firing
hanging after harvest as part of the curing process.
To Mr. Shimaoka's home
through the pottery grounds between studios and the wrapping station for pots leaving the pottery
covers one of the noburigama
Traditional farm building used for storage
The main pottery where most of the hand production of pottery was performed
A traditional safe store house made of a local, light volcanic stone
Several years of cut and stacked red pine aging for the 3 wood kilns used at the pottery
In a field between the Hamada & Shimaoka properties. Used for the storage of farm tools
Tools
wood paddle for pattern. Mr. Shimaoka's studio
in mortars for grinding
made of local dried rice straw. Used for slip painting, Korean style. Mr. Shimaoka's workshop
assorted tools for creating patterns to be inlayed
years supply of cut, bundled, cured red pine for the firings
Tools for throwing
assorted braided rope for inlay patterns
Kilns & Firing
and traditional kiln shed
before the saggers are stacked
filled with plates create a bagwall as a kiln is loaded
stokes one of the upper chambers of the noburi-gama with pine
(charcoal) chamber is being loaded with pots
is loaded and ready to brick up. Each pot on seashells
where special pots related to ritual are fired for 4 days. Temp may reach cone 10-12
stoking the fire mouth grate through the main port
of the two noborigamas. This one fired in oxidation and started with two diesel burner mounted on the front of the kiln
over glaze enamel kiln
loaded on stationary shelves for an upcoming firing.
technique borrowed from the Shigaraki tradition. Pots wrapped in rice straw and fired in oxidation saggers.
at night
charging the Yohen chamber with pieces of light charcoal
from the early stages of a noborigama firing
Me
With Prof. Ward Youry and myself at a solo exhibition of my work at Takumi Gallery in Tokyo
from clearing the field of dry growth. Mr. Shimaoka's Shokunin-san Left to right; Mitsuiyan, Sabuiyan, Shochan in the back and Fukiyan in front of him, Toshki-san to the far right
At an exhibition a Tokyo exhibition of Mr. Shimaoka's work
Hiroshiyan preparing clay for press molding
Night shift on the noburigama
with making a larger pot in sections on the wheel in his workshop
making work for an exhibition
after a mornings work throwing unomi
working on the tobacco crop
on the back wall of the top chamber in Mr. Shimaoka's new noborigama