Tomio Suzuki Aka-Shino Green Tea Chawan
"Making shino requires the same deductive reasoning that detectives use to solve a mystery. They eliminate variables one-by-one until they find the answer. For me, it's the same. I'll try a new method, fail, and try another until I've found one that works."
That's how Kyoto potter Tomio Suzuki describes the challenge of his work. "Shino", the name for the technique Mr. Suzuki works in, originated 450 years ago in Japan during the Momoyama Era. It is characterized by a simple glaze (pure feldspar and water) which is allowed to run down and crackle around the clay body.
Mr. Suzuki works primarily in three types of glazes: nezumi, aka, and a "basic" shino. The difference between them lies in the use of a red iron oxide-rich coloring agent (called onita) found in certain riverbed sediments in Japan. The gray color of nezumi shino (literally "mouse shino") forms when a white feldspar overglaze reacts with an underlying slip of onita.
The rust-red color of aka shino (left) is produced by mixing large amounts of the same coloring agent directly into the glaze. Conversely, the pink and orange hues found in Mr. Suzuki's basic shino (lower left) form without the use of a coloring agent and depend, instead, upon changing temperatures within the kiln.
The clay that is used is equally important. Called mogusa-tsuchi, this clay from Gifu Prefecture is unique in that it becomes light-textured and porous after long firings - a quality that is necessary in order for the glaze to shrink just tightly enough for the cracks and pinholes to develop.
For More Works: 2000 Cranes
"Making shino requires the same deductive reasoning that detectives use to solve a mystery. They eliminate variables one-by-one until they find the answer. For me, it's the same. I'll try a new method, fail, and try another until I've found one that works."
That's how Kyoto potter Tomio Suzuki describes the challenge of his work. "Shino", the name for the technique Mr. Suzuki works in, originated 450 years ago in Japan during the Momoyama Era. It is characterized by a simple glaze (pure feldspar and water) which is allowed to run down and crackle around the clay body.
Mr. Suzuki works primarily in three types of glazes: nezumi, aka, and a "basic" shino. The difference between them lies in the use of a red iron oxide-rich coloring agent (called onita) found in certain riverbed sediments in Japan. The gray color of nezumi shino (literally "mouse shino") forms when a white feldspar overglaze reacts with an underlying slip of onita.
The rust-red color of aka shino (left) is produced by mixing large amounts of the same coloring agent directly into the glaze. Conversely, the pink and orange hues found in Mr. Suzuki's basic shino (lower left) form without the use of a coloring agent and depend, instead, upon changing temperatures within the kiln.
The clay that is used is equally important. Called mogusa-tsuchi, this clay from Gifu Prefecture is unique in that it becomes light-textured and porous after long firings - a quality that is necessary in order for the glaze to shrink just tightly enough for the cracks and pinholes to develop.
For More Works: 2000 Cranes
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