A Simple Chawan by Park Jong Il

I’ve been away from this blog for far too long.  Because of that, I have been looking at a number of chawan worthy of being the one with which I returned and I have assembled several that I consider worthy candidates.  You will meet them later.  Then I received a grouping of images of chawan by Park Jong Il.  We introduced him to the Western tea world a few years ago and his teapots that are gaining international attention.  Park Jong Il is best known for his teapots. While his teapots are usually consistent and recognizable as uniquely his, his chawan are different.  In a real sense his chawan are like a group of people that might attend a gathering to celebrate tea.   Some are masculine, some are feminine, some are more rugged looking than others – I think you get the picture.
As I was preparing those chawan images for that post, I kept returning to this teabowl.  I wasn’t sure why I couldn’t get it out of my mind so I decided to write about it simply to figure that out.  Unfortunately I don’t have the bowl here and the images I do have were taken with a cell phone so I can’t hold it in my hands.  But, I do know it was made with Jerisan clay, the same clay that he used to build the walls of his home and studio - the same Jerisan that is the ‘holy mountain’ for Korean tea.  So this bowl at its heart is made with the clay that most ceramic artists think is the best clay for chawan.   
Still, this is a very plain, effortless and not very complex bowl.  I mean this bowl appears so simple and uncomplicated that probably many people would simply walk on by.  Possibly not even give it a glance.  There are no drips, no stones emerging from the sides, no overlapping glaze or slip, no fingerprints, no wobbles – nothing – nothing that would call your attention to it.  Sure, there is that gentle kiss of flame on the lip - but that is it – after that nothing.  Really nothing?  Well, there is that perfect pale light orange ‘flesh’ color that is so sensuous and desired by tea connoisseurs.  And this bowl is very calm, unagitated and serene.  It is at peace with itself.  There is a softness to it that makes me want to hold it.  I know it would fit my hands beautifully.

The walls were formed quickly with faint throwing lines – not fingertips, but the side of the finger.  The clay body has no ‘grog’ or pre-fired ‘dead clay’.  There appears to be a certain amount of fine sand but not river bottom sand that would act as ‘miniature ball bearings’ in the clay body.   

It is a deep bowl with the interior dropping down inside the foot.  The strong foot was trimmed quickly, possibly with a bamboo gub suay kal or left bent knife, leaving a ‘ruffled’ or chattered pattern where it didn’t cut cleanly through the sandy clay used to form it. 

  

One or possibly two quick passes with the kal and it was done.  There is no sense in fussing over the foot for this bowl.  The foot is sturdy with a ‘bamboo knot’ foot – a classic finish.  Finally it was fired with wood with a semi-transparent feldspatic glaze – a time honored glaze.

So what makes this chawan extraordinary, exciting and compelling?  In a word, “nothing”.  Well, nothing ‘extraordinary’ or ‘exciting’, but compelling - I think so. 

In a recent post on our new tea 無爲 Mu-wi Sejak I wrote a little about the term ‘mu’.  Essentially the term means something like ‘empty’, ‘nothing’, ‘nothingness’ or ‘without‘ etc.  At first glance, one might attribute all of these things to this seemingly unremarkable bowl.  But there was something about this bowl that made me come back to it again and again.  Just to absorb it.  I must also remember that the term 'mu' in this sense is a Taoist term so it it a Taoist 'nothing'.

I can imagine feeling this bowl as it fits my hands warm now, not hot, with the addition of some good fresh matcha.  The kind of matcha the Japanese keep for themselves and don’t export.  I bring the bowl to my lips and absorb that sweet, not bitter, freshness of tea.  This bowl is serving me well.  That is how it should be.  This bowl was made to serve.  It is not a collector’s chawan – not yet anyway, but give it a century or two of good use and it may become a cherished cultural treasure.  You won't have to wait that long to enjoy it and only a little while for it to begin to mature in use.   

For this chawan is just that - a chawan.  It is not a bowl for candy or soup, possibly rice, but as soon as you look at it you know it is a chawan.   It is made for tea – to serve tea.  It is not made to serve itself, to be displayed on a shelf on some collector’s wall.  This bowl is made to be used, and the more you use it the better it will get.  It is just a simple chawan.  It is not the “Kizaemon Ido”.  But, let us remember that when Yanagi wrote about the Kizaemon Ido, he wrote . . . how ordinary! So simple, no more ordinary thing could be imagined. There is not a trace or ornament, not a trace of calculation. It is just a Korean food bowl, a bowl. Moreover, that a poor man would use everyday – commonest crockery.  

Later Yanagi continues:

But that is how it should be. The plain and unagitated, the uncalculated, the harmless, the straightforward, the natural, the innocent, the humble, the modest: where does beauty lie if not in these qualities? The meek, the austere, the un-ornate – they are the natural characteristics that gain man’s affection and respect. 

This chawan by Park Jong Il is not the Kizaemon Ido but it has many of those characteristics - plain, humble, straightforward and natural.  I don’t know about you but it has gained my affection and respect.

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The World of Korean Ceramics - Available Book

This is a very quick post on the availability of the book The World of Korean Ceramics.  

I recently was able to make arrangements with the surviving author of this book Dr. Alan Covell for us to handle sales of the remaining copies of this out of print book.  Several of you have contacted me about this book but it was not yet available.  Now it is available, please contact me again if you are still interested.  I will accept orders in the order I receive them after this post.  

The book will be signed by Dr. Covell.   The price is $35.00. plus shipment from the USA.  The original price of this book at the time of its publication was $39.50.  I realize that this is slightly higher than some used copies.  However a blog based on the content of this book is being developed and will be available to those who have obtained the book from this source.  All proceeds from the sale of this book will go toward our work promoting ceramics - particularly Korean.

Contents:

1. The Prehistoric World
2. The Horserider-Shamanist World
 3. The Buddhist World
4. The Confucian World
5.  The Japanese World

One may wonder why Japan is included.  This in part explains Korea's influence on Japanese pottery including chanoyu, Japanese gains in the "Pottery War" and more.

6.  The Modern World
  Each section provides very interesting and rare information in .
  Appendices

Included are chronological tables, kiln Illustrations and maps of Koryo kilns, partial list of musuems and major Korean collections, bibliography, and maps of porcelain and buncheong (punch'ong) kiln sites.  

The book is richly illustrated.

This is just one of the many pages of illustration found in this book.  All of these Korean chawan are in Japanese museums. In case you are interested, the text below these chawan reads:

No one individual could take *Hideyoshi, who first was hospitable to the Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries, as his predecessor Nobunaga had been, but by 1587 came to see that they presented a rival power, a rival loyalty, and he demanded absolute obedience from his subjects.  Kyushu had been difficult to conquer, and was not under such strong control because of its distance from his center of power (Kyoto-Osaka).  By sending troops only from the maritime provinces of Kyushu and western Japan, Hideoshi revealed his wariness of these strongly Christian areas.

Dr. Jon Covell, now deceased, was a learned scholar of both Japanese and Korean.  She was the first person to earn her doctorate in Japanese studies and lived in the Daitoku-Ji Japan for 10 years doing extensive research.  Daitoku-Ji temple houses many famous chawan.  Then she also lived in Korea for 10 years doing extensive research there as well.  There are very few who can match her linguistic skills.  Her son Dr. Alan Covell is a leading authority on Korean Shamanism and scholar on many aspects of Korean and Japanese culture. 

Again if you are interested in getting a copy of this book signed by Dr. Alan Covell, please contact me and include your shipping address and phone number.  I'll email you a PDF invoice and explain payment arrangements. 

NOTE:  This book is currently not available from me.  I will place you on a 'wish list' and work on getting more copies.

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An Older Korean Buncheong Chawan

We have had very little snow in our area this winter and what snow we did have has not been big and fluffy while bending the branches with its downy whiteness so deep you can barely move.  Beautiful yes, but not being a skier, that type of snow doesn't bring me physical joy.  I'm the one who has to shovel it.  

The snow we are having reminds me of an older buncheong bowl in my personal collection.  As I said, this snow is not the snow that is all fluffy and bright - untouched and pure white, but a snow that is more ‘natural’ and touched heavily by its environment. 

The bowl is touched heavily by its environment too and takes me back to a Korea 'touched heavily' by the conditions of the times.  This bowl takes me to my  Korean grandparents and to the times they experienced prior to and during the period when this bowl was made - the years when Japan occupied Korea.

I’m speaking of my ‘gqey yl’ buncheong chawan or brushed slip chawan made in Korea during the period of the Japanese occupation – officially 1910-1945.  I use the term ‘officially’ because the Japanese were in control pf Korea for several years before 1910 - defeating both Russia and China then assassinating Queen Min1 in 1895 and in 1906 dissolving the Korean army and palace guards of which my grandfather was a ‘captain’.  Grandfather would die for Korean independence, possibly also by assassination.  But that is another story that has been told elsewhere.

 My Old Korean Buncheong ‘Gqey Yl’’

Even though both China and Korea used powdered tea before the Japanese the Japanese are responsible for the elevated position Korean chawan hold in the tea world.   But, why do older and even some contemporary Korean chawan hold an elevated position in the chawan world?  A complete explanation would take many more pages than I care to write for this post.  However, historically at least, the Japanese simply couldn’t make teabowls as 'natural' as the Koreans.  Even the great Japanese Intangible Cultural Asset Hamada Shoji, under whom I studied, agreed.  He simply said, “You can’t make loose work in a tight society.”  

Perhaps that is why the Japanese, during their occupation of Korea, had Korean potters make chawan for export to Japan.  Some of those bowls remained in Korea and this is one of them.  During this discussion you may even discover why I imagine this teabowl remained in Korea.   

I obtained it a few years ago, at very little cost, from a very reputable antique gallery in Insadong, Seoul.  I have also seen similar 'occupation' chawan offered as authentic historic buncheong chawan from the “buncheong period” of Korean ceramic history - 1392-1592 by less reputable dealers in the same area of Seoul.

For a 'complete understanding' of this bowl I suppose history is important but this is not a dissertation.  I simply want to look at the bowl.  In any case some 'history' has already crept in.  

Before I begin the main discussion, I want to say a little about buncheong and gqey yl.  There is considerable confusion leading occasionally to misrepresentations of buncheong by otherwise knowledgeable tea people both here and in Korea.  So I want the reader to understand this particular type of buncheong.  

What is ‘buncheong’ and what is ‘gqey yl’?  To avoid a very lengthy history lesson, buncheong, is a relatively new Korean term for a group of ancient Korean ceramic decorating processes that use mostly white slip in a number of ways under a clear glaze.  'Slip' is essentially clay in the consistency of paint due to the amount of water present.  White slip, containing porcelain clay, was primarily used.  ‘Gqey yl’ is a term used to describe buncheong when a brush is/was used  to apply the slip.  Does this explanation sound too simple, it is.  But it will have to do for this post.  Someday I’ll do a post here or on another blog explaining 'buncheong' in more depth.  But for now, let's look at this bowl.

 Click to Enlarge All Images

It measures 5.5in or 14cm wide and 2.25in or about 6cm tall.  A smaller chawan.  The form is Japanese, not Korean.  There are a number of authentic Korean chawan forms but this is not one of them.  At first glance it is a common bowl - at first glance it is not even that attractive, mostly because of the foot and unusual lip roughness.  In my opinion the foot is little too weak, and with the exception of the off centered trimming, it is also a little too tight.  

What a way to begin to describe a chawan - by pointing out what I believe to be its faults.  The bowl is a 'product of its environment' and there are other “faults”, so lets get them out of the way before I really tell you what I think about this bowl.

 While vases and bottles are formed from the exterior, bowls are formed from the interior so let's look there first.  The white slip was applied quickly with a broad but not rough brush.  A yellow stain of unknown origin mars the surface.  Next to it, we find a drop of slip.  

   

The origin of the yellow stain is not known.  Most likely the drop of slip is the result of dipping the rim of the bowl very gently and carefully into the bowl of slip, after brushing, just to be certain the rim of the bowl was covered.  This extra dipping of the lip accounts for the unusual drip markings across and around much of the rim.  These markings are unusual and probably undesirable by a Japanese chawan connoisseur even 100 years ago.

  

  

Turning again to the interior of the bowl we are confronted with a number of interesting 'events'.

 

I first notice the contrasting color of the center circle with the rest of the bowl.  This is caused I believe by captured 'reduction' or lack of oxygen in the 'foot well' under the bowl.  Some Korean chawan styles, and many chawan from Hagi, Japan2 call for a notch in the foot to allow oxygen into this area thus preventing this type of color change.  Next, we see three 'wad' marks where small wads of clay were used so that another similar bowl could be stacked inside this one during the firing3.  A true chawan connoisseur would say these wad marks are too large.  You might also notice two other 'events'.  First, the tiny bare clay spot nearly in the center of the bottom where a piece of slip in drying did not adhere properly and came off sometime after firing.  Second, another drip of white slip; this time the slip had more water content and splashed flat just off the upper left center bottom.  It was just thick enough to cover a sliver of the captured reduction.  One can not leave the interior of this chawan without commenting on the slight glaze crawl and slight green tint to the transparent glaze where, for a number of possible reasons, the glaze application was a little thicker.  Overall the glaze is applied very thinly.  Each of these events adds immeasurably to the story of this chawan.

         

Let's take another look at the foot.  Earlier I said it was a little too weak.  But this photo doesn't suggest that.  That is because the foot is inconsistent being straight on one side and concave on the other.  When holding this bowl in my hands the foot is a little too weak.  Again, due to the above camera angle the image shows the foot as being slightly convex when in reality it is ranges from slightly concave to straight. (below)

 

The artist used a gubsuay-kal or 'left bent' knife made by hand from a flat strap of thin metal especially to trim the foot quickly.  Tools of this type are 'must have' if you are serious about creating chawan.  The foot ring is trimmed part way down the side of the bowl.  In this case, it is trimmed to the area the artist decided to cover with slip.  It is not unusual for an Asian ceramic artist to trim more than a Western ceramic artist.  In Asia, trimming is simply another forming process.  I have seen highly skilled Korean and Japanese masters trim their bowls from the bottom of the foot to nearly the edge of the lip to get a desired form.  The clay body contains particles of both mountain sand and stone.  Mountain sand is 'toothy',  It is not like river bottom sand that is rounded by the water and acts like minuscule ball bearings during the forming process.  No 'grog' i.e. pre-fired and pulverized bisque clay is used because, "Grog is dead clay and absorbs water" (again Hamada). 

   

A closer look at the foot and edge of the slip reveals both the stone in the clay body and the 'drier' consistency of the slip when it was applied.

I suppose it is time to discuss what I really feel about this bowl rather than what I see in this bowl.  Have you ever picked up a pebble that you liked more than a diamond?  Have you ever thought that old coins were more attractive than new coins?  Have you ever met a person who on initial meeting wasn't attractive but became so after you got to know them?  This bowl is like that.  I don't know if I have ever been so 'critical' of a bowl that I really like.  In spite of its flaws or perhaps because of them this bowl has presence but it is not boisterous.  Simple, naive, un-agitated, the bowl is here to serve.  What more should we ask of a chawan?  
Addendum: Alas!
Well that is what I said in February 2012 when I wrote this.  Since that time, I’ve been thinking about this bowl from time to time.  One thing has been bothering me.  It is not necessarily bothering me about the aesthetic qualities of the bowl but rather its real history.  Above I wrote, “The artist used a gubsuay-kal or 'left bent' knife made by hand from a flat strap of thin metal especially to trim the foot quickly.”  It absolutely was trimmed by a metal gubsuay-kal.  But before metal kals, bamboo gubsuay kals were used.  That issue continued to ‘eat at me’.  So the last time I was in Korea, I met with my friend Cheon Han Bong.  Cheon Han Bong, an Intangible Living Treasure, was one of the artists who reestablished teabowls in Korea.  My question was simple. “When did ceramic artists start using metal gubsuay kals in Korea?”  I expected to hear him answer, “Many years ago.” or “Around 1930.” or even 1940.  But he simply said, “Around 1970.”  1970!  That means this bowl is not a bowl made during the Japanese occupation of Korea in the first half of the last century.  That means the gallery where I purchased it and another gallery where I saw a similar piece authenticated on paper that their bowl was from the occupation period were wrong.  The second gallery was committing fraud.  It is a good thing  didn’t pay much for this piece considering the price of chawan.  I still ‘like’ or as delineated above 'dislike' the bowl but for different reasons. 
When I started this blog, I said it was an “Interior and Exterior Journey”.  This experience in particular has been an 'interior' one.  The journey continues. 

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1 Queen Min is also known as Empress Myeongseong 
2 Hagi is a Japanese pottery village founded by Korean ceramic artists during or just after the Imjin War.
3 Potters of this period in Asia did not use kiln shelves so several teabowls were stacked inside each other separated only by specially prepared wads consisting mostly of refractory clay and usually some organic matter like rice flour or sawdust.  Many contemporary recipes for these wads can be found online.          

An Autumnal Chawan

It's early November, the leaves have turned to amazing tints and shades of red, yellow, orange and gold and the winds of autumn are beginning to chill the air.   I’ve been thinking about how this time of year seems to compel us to merge hot tea with bowl and about the fire and energy that creates that merging moment.  Every time of year is the perfect time for tea but the cool breezes, colors and haze of autumn, in my part of the world, seem to make the merging of tea and teabowl even more necessary. 

To illustrate this, I’m turning once again to a bowl by the renowned teabowl artist Min Young Ki.  He created a magnificent bowl that warms me just thinking about it. 

This bowl was born of fire and seems to keep the warmth of that flame within its soul.

 

The kiln that produced it seems almost haphazard.  Made of stone, clay and brick, the dome is cracked, yet there is nothing haphazard about the work that emerges.   Still, like most Korean teabowl artists, thousands are made, few chosen for the honor of serving tea.

 

Among all the teabowls that were selected, this teabowl is the epitome of autumn.  Let’s look at it again.

 

The bowl exudes warmth, not scorching HEAT, “warmth” with all the ramifications of that word.  You can almost feel how this bowl fits your hands and radiates that warmth into your bones. 

The natural feldspathic glaze creates a haze across the bowl.  We can almost see leaves drifting in the distance. 

   

Like autumn the weather changes.  Some days are warmer than others. . .

 

. . . and slowly the cool breezes of winter begin to appear. 

 

Like earth the foot is dark and strong holding above it all of autumn in a magnificent bowl.  

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Tranquility: Another Taste

Please Read Previous Post First

Min Young Ki

“I don’t get it.  This is just a common bowl.  I can find lots of bowls like this on my college student’s shelves and I have them throw most of them out.”  A well-known American potter said this to me while showing me a photo of a nice Korean tea bowl.  That bowl was similar in color and form to this bowl but; to be fair, it was not this bowl he was referring to.  Never the less, bowls like this may not be for everyone.  This bowl is so “simple” so “plain”, un-agitated, innocent, natural and “ordinary”.

Before I began this post I had a very brief moment when I thought I might attempt to “enlighten” that potter and others to the beauty of this bowl by discussing the things about it that make it truly a very special tea bowl.  What a pompous, naïve thought that was!  Unless there is personal insight nothing more can be said or seen. 

In addition, I’m certain that I don’t always “get it”.  If I understood or felt a tiny fraction of what can or should be understood or felt about chawan it might give me a little peace in this search.  I am sure that there are many really good chawan that I don’t yet “see” or “feel”.  So who am I to judge others?

This particular Min bowl is probably easier to “feel” but may be more difficult to “see”. 

When tasting various teas for the first time it often takes me more than one sitting to fully appreciate the various nuances that tea can provide.  It seems to be the same with chawan.  This post is here simply to give you another taste.

Click on images once or twice to enlarge

Soetsu Yanagi wrote of the Kizaemon Ido Teabowl:

Why should beauty emerge from the world of the ordinary? The answer is because that world is natural. In Zen there is a saying that at the far end of the road lies effortless peace. What more can be desired?  So, too, peaceful beauty. The beauty of the Kizaemon Ido bowl is that of strifeless peace . . . . .

and this chawan?

  Peace

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Tranquility

 

Min Young Ki

Sometimes it is the simplest things that make the most lasting impressions.  Grace does not go unnoticed, a gentle breeze is more appreciated than a gale and calm doesn’t have to be followed by a storm.  Such it is with this particular chawan by Min Young Ki.  How can hard fired clay emerging from earth and fire seem like gossamer?  How can hard fired clay seem so delicate?  Not “fragile” but “delicate”.  This tea bowl is the epitome of “peace” and that is why I am presenting it to you just after the devastating events in Japan.  We need a little “peace’.  We need a quiet moment when we can simply sit, perhaps with warm green tea in a favorite ch’at-chan or be with our favorite chawan and some Japanese matcha to contemplate the moment while clearing our minds of all else.  It is moments like this that tea and bowl or cup become one.  It is for moments like this that Tea, bowl and cup are made.  This chawan is the epitome of tranquility.  Subtle in color and form this bowl’s presence is “felt” before “seen”.  Such serene and tranquil moments come too seldom.

Peace.

Chick on images once to enlarge twice to zoom in

Please go to Next Post Tranquility: Another Taste

The Effect of the Sendai Earthquake and Tsunami on Ceramics in Japan

This post is dedicated to the victims of the Sendai earthquake and Tsunami.  It is without images but does contain links to many images and other web related sites.

My family is keenly aware of earthquakes.  As a young child my father survived the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 (7.9-8.25).  More than 3000 people were lost.  Dad remembers running out of his home then turning around and watching his home collapse.  When he spoke of this on a recording I made of him while he was in his 70’s he reached down to rub his leg and said, ”I can still feel that shaking in my legs.”  My brother, who was a professor working near Kobe, Japan survived the Great Hanshin earthquake or Kobe earthquake in 1995 (7.3).  6433 people lost their lives and it lasted for 20 seconds.  An armoire fell and hit my brother on his head while he slept.  He survived but still suffers from the incident.  I fortunately have never experienced an earthquake or at least one I felt. 

This is a devastating time in Japan’s history.  Everyone can feel greatly saddened at Japan’s loss in lives and property.  Can you imagine an 8.9 earthquake that lasted for two minutes and created a tsunami that caused 7 ft waves along the western coast of the United States and down the coast of South America?  There have been ‘aftershocks’ from this earthquake nearly the size of the Kobe earthquake of 1995.  The power of this earthquake and tsunami is beyond measure or full comprehension.  We have no idea of the death toll from the Sendai earthquake and tsunami.  We do know that Sendai is a city of about 1 million people and it was greatly damaged.  We also know that about 10,000 people are reportedly unaccounted for in the Japanese port town of Minamisanriku in quake-hit Miyagi prefecture.   In addition, two high-speed bullet trains were missing alongside a cruise ship carrying 100 passengers that was swept away when the wave hit. One of the trains was reported to be carrying 400 passengers.  Sadly the number of lost lives will be enormous.

The people of Japan will feel the effect of this earthquake and the tsunami beyond the life expectancy of anyone who actually experienced it.

The loss of property is unimportant.  A single life cannot be measured against any amount of ‘property’.  But for those of us in ceramics, the effect these events have had or will have on ceramics in Japan may still be of interest, even if it is merely a diversion from the great sadness we feel from the loss of lives. 

Miyagi prefecture where the city of Sendai is located is not known for their chawan but is well known for folk pottery.  Kirikomi-yaki and Tsutsumi-yaki are from the Miyagi prefecture.  The Miyagi prefecture has several ceramic related museums.  They include:

MUSEUM OF JOMON ART

A two hundred piece collection of Jomon earthenware forms the core of this museum. Amassed by poet Sakon Sou, the museum is housed in a specially renovated 'kura' or an old Japanese warehouse.

TOHOKU Modern Pottery and Porcelain Museum

Tohoku Modern Pottery and Porcelain Museum was established in 1987 in order to preserve the folk ceramic culture in the region. The collection includes folk pottery and porcelain of Tohoku region made during Edo, Meiji and Taisho period are mainly shown. Kirikomi-yaki and Tsutsumi-yaki of Miyagi prefecture, Aizu-Hongo-yaki, Obori-Soma-yaki, Soma-Koma-yaki of Fukushima prefecture, Hirashimizu-yaki of Yamagata prefecture and Shiroiwa-yaki of Akita prefecture are on display.  A true folk art museum

(Examples of this work are difficult to find on the the English web, If you have links to these on Japanese web sites, I would appreciate that information )

The Marusu Museum

The Marusu Museum was established in 1950 to house the collection of Suda family in the region. The collection includes earthenware, Sue-style ware,  T'ang three-colored pottery,  Kyo-yaki,  Imari-yaki,  Kutani-yaki,  Seto-yaki,  Mino-yaki, Shigaraki-yaki,  Iga-yaki,  Banko-yaki,  Aizu-yaki and other ceramic ware are on display.

(This is the museum for tea ware including many chawan.)

The Akamon Museum located in Sendai

The Akamon Museum was established in 1982. The collection includes brush paintings, western paintings pottery and porcelain, swords, armors, helmets of samurai, sculptures as well as literature related to the local clan family in the region are mainly on display.

Thank you e-yakimono.net for some of this information

The earthquake affected many ceramic artists and art groups.  We have no idea how many.  However at last report Kelly Cox, an American ceramic artist traveling in Japan, is still missing.  Her wedding is planned for April.  I hope that she will post a comment on this site saying that she is well.  If you know Kelly and she is well, please have her post a comment on this blog.  I have great hope for Kelly’s survival since NewsCore recently posted the following statement. “The US has accounted for ‘most all’ of Americans known to be in Japan after the country was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami Friday”. ( Since this post I heard third-hand that Kelly survived and had her wedding! Congratulations!)

The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota was conducting a tour to Japan for their members and staff.  All are safe.

Columbus State University in Georgia had a small group of ceramic students studying ceramics in Japan.  All are safe.  

Ian MacDougall a Canadian living in Japan since 1984 commented, “The earthquake smashed one of my wife’s nicest pieces of pottery, but that’s the worst it did to us.” — CBC.  Multiply that comment by the thousands of others that also lost their “nicest pieces of pottery”.

Euan Craig, an Australian potter living and working in Mashiko, Japan, felt the effects of this quake and wrote about it in his blog.  They are safe but the kiln is damaged and they have no insurance because it was leased to someone without insurance.  I'm sure they could use some help.

We now know that Mashiko, Japan was greatly damages,  It has been reported that nearly all kilns in Mashiko suffered some damage and many pots were broken.   Koichiro Isaka has posted damage to Hamada's kilns on his Facebook page.  Look on his "wall".  There was considerable damage to Hamada's Reference Museum containing some of his best work.  Many pieces were lost.  I worked with Hamada Shoji in 1963 so I feel that loss very deeply. 

Ken Matsuzaki has established a relief fund for the Mashiko Potter Foundation.  Currently that fund only receives money by bank transfer which costs $45 USD to the bank if transferred internationally from the United States.  I'll contact Ken to see if there is another way to contribute and post that here if he answers.  In the meantime if you don't mind the bank getting that much, contact me, prove you are a ceramic artist and I'll send you that bank swift code etc.  I am sure you can find it other places.  As you probably already know, when you have that type of bank information, someone can take out as easily as put in.  I have suggested to Ken that he use PayPal or a credit card system.  

Jan at Jane Street Clayworks has an interesting post on the disaster with several quotes and their links related to ceramics.

I can’t get my head around a post on tea bowls right now but think we all could make a small difference in the situation in Japan if we each donated the profit from just one ceramic item.  How about the profit from a day's work?

I’m sure you have your favorite places to make donations to relief efforts like this.  My favorite places to donate are:

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent  Societies,

The Salvation Army International and

Save the Children.

Those funds won't help the potters but there is great need and each of these organizations does great work in areas that need disaster relief.  Japan has given the ceramic world so much.  Perhaps it is time we give a little back.

The Leach Pottery in St Ives England has established a relief fund for the potters in Mashiko, Japan.  Contact Julia if you would like to make a special donation there.   

Be sure to avoid unknown or little known relief agencies and private individuals no matter who they say they are.  I'm sure the St. Ives pottery  and Ken Matsuzaki are fine.  

Also avoid those who say they are posting images from the disaster and ask you to log on.  There may be unwanted cookies attached.

Now we can only pray for the victims of this disaster and for all of Japan.

Peace.

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