

Pots number 3 & 4, pressed tenmoku dish, shino glazed tokkuri.
Finally we found the two galleries recommended by Maggie Zerafa (a Skye potter who apprenticed in Mashiko for two years www.baypottery.co.uk), Toko and Moegi. What treasure troves. Most of the work on display is functional for Japanese purposes, many different dishes for individual portions, even so most would stand alone proudly on display for their forms and surfaces alone. I have always loved rich dark tenmoku and this is a lovely example. I would be glad if anyone could explain how the aubergine motif in the glaze is achieved.

The slightly pinholed matt shino glaze covers entirely it apart from the three finger marks left from dipping the piece in the glaze bucket. The iron in the body has been drawn through the glaze to colour it a dark pinky brown. It was the feel of the piece which finally sold it to me, soft and warm it comes perfectly to the hand, (and frankly I wasn’t leaving the shop the only one without a Ken pot). It grows on me, it is modest and quiet and most importantly, I now understand, it comes with it’s story of a wonderful day in Mashiko with friends and potters.
Now that this piece is home on Skye I find the colour is that of the native birch trees in winter, the colour in the heart of the deep mounds of moss in those birch woods, the colour of the evening hills on the mainland as the sun sets.
What a collection! I particularly like the shape of the Matsuzaki Ken.