22 LUSTRE The Ceramic Art of Hideaki Miyamura Pucker Gallery | Boston 22 F-STOP | gold glaze | 90 x 10.5 x 10.5˝ | HM444 All works are porcelain. COVER: EDICULE VASE | blue hare’s fur glaze | 15 x 9 x 9˝ | HM419 BACK COVER: VASE | blue hare’s fur glaze with snow cap | 7 x 6 x 6˝ | HM422 3 LIDDED JAR | black and gold glazes | 7.75 x 7.75 x 5.5˝ | HM406 LUSTRE The Ceramic Art of Hideaki Miyamura xperimentation is the systematic artwork itself. His vessels are pristine, dis- houses a studio and separate kiln building control of the known, counter- armingly simple, contemplative objects where Miyamura devotes his days to the balanced by acceptance of the whose finishes reflect the panoply of the technically demanding, creatively inspi- E unknown. Though experimenta- natural world—geologic phenomena, rational process of pottery, assiduously tion’s first job is to test suppositions, its star-filled nights, undulating ocean waves, mixing his clay body, throwing his vessels, true power is not in proving preconcep- and fiery sunsets. concocting his glazes, and monitoring his tions, but rather in revealing the unex- Hideaki Miyamura came to pottery firings. Light-filled from enormous win- pected and driving innovation. Experi- not by serendipity but with great purpose, dows, the studio is tranquil and open but, mentation often seeks something specific, glimpsing a dream at a young age and actu- even at rest, reverberates with the intensi- but unveils something mysterious. Hideaki alizing it through a resolute commitment ty of the artist’s immense focus and drive. Miyamura has embraced these harmonic to education and practice, a tenacious Sculptural vessels in various states of principles in his pottery; though driven spirit, and a disregard for the obstacles completion line the studio like sentinels by the pursuit of certain glaze finishes in his way. Miyamura’s early life in Japan, guarding over the artist, who is a genial through controlled testing and the mini- both in the small province of Niigata and and engaging, yet private man. If Mi- mization of chance, he is, in the end, open later as a potter’s apprentice, remains in yamura’s studio is symbolic of his current to risk and guided by the mystical and the fiber of his being, yet is geographically success as an artist-potter, it does not di- spiritual power of giving life to hidden and culturally distant from Kensington, vulge the years and trials that have led the All works are porcelain. beauty. His process of throwing, glazing, New Hampshire, where he now lives and artist here, and contains only glimpses of and firing is as refined and complex as the works. His serene and secluded property his 26-year-old self—the aspiring artist 4 who, one day, was perusing a pottery book was it about these four yohen tenmoku kilns many miles away from Mt. Tianmu, and came upon four photographs of Chi- bowls, which the artist never even saw in but which they nonetheless termed ten- nese Song Dynasty (950-1269) tea bowls person, which so inspired the trajectory of moku). Today’s tea ceremony, an intricate glazed in a dark and lustrous tenmoku. his life? art, is a nuanced and complex fusion of Though much has changed in Miyamura’s Twelfth-century Japanese Buddhist culturally significant rituals.T he Japanese life since that time, he is still infused with monks who were in China’s Mt. Tianmu potters of today who make tea bowls of- the sense of awe and spurred by the pen- (“tenmoku” in Japanese; “Heavens’ Eye” ten devote years to its study in order to chant for risk that this photographic en- in English) to study Zen Buddhism were thoroughly understand the elevating role counter ignited, and still driven by the given tea to forestall drowsiness during of the bowl, and craft the vessel with this pursuit to create things as beautiful as, or meditation. When the monks returned to purpose in mind. The mingei interest in the even more beautiful than, what he saw in Japan, they brought with them the seeds beauty of everyday objects may have been that book. As fellow potter Brother Thom- for the tea plants and the glazed earthen- an integral part of the artist’s upbringing as Bezanson wrote, “risking and dreaming ware bowls in which the tea was served and training, but it never fully resonated are the primary acts of creativity.” What (bowls which had actually been made at with his visionary mind. While Miyamura VASE | red glaze | 11 x 8 x 8˝ | HM424 5 VASE | iron crystalline glaze | 9 x 4.25 x 4.25˝ | HM409 VASE | red glaze | 9.25 x 5.25 x 5.25˝ | HM425 honors and respects those who take this ash glaze that develops on a pot during the times merging in oily spots, and sometimes path, his personal aesthetic celebrates firing and came to prominence during the melting in deep and glossy pools. Miyamu- the beauty of beauty (in fact, the shape of Song Dynasty. It is especially notable in ra’s unique combination of the two—often many of the works are so attenuated that Bizen ware. An alternate meaning to the referred to in his oeuvre by its nickname they prevent functionality), and his inter- word yo, apropos to the glistening night- “hare’s fur glaze”—is defined by irides- est lies in pottery’s ability to be spiritually sky appearance of the glaze, is “stars.” The cence, shimmer, and tendril-like striations uplifting. word tenmoku also has had a dual meaning, of brilliant blues, greens, and yellows. It was not the purpose of the vessels describing both shape (a tea bowl with The Song Dynasty tenmoku, once the that so inspired Miyamura when he saw an indented rim that can be glazed in any inspirational benchmark, is now just one the images of the Song Dynasty tea bowls style) and coloration (an iron-saturated of several glazes in the repertoire of an in that book. It was the yohen tenmoku inky black). Molten iron in the tenmoku artist whose style represents diverse cul- glaze. Yohen (yo meaning “kiln” and hen glaze shifts enigmatically on the clay body, tural and aesthetic influences, and whose meaning “change”) refers to the natural sometimes combining in crystals, some- attention to shape rivals his mastery of 6 VASE | silver eyes glaze | 8.5 x 6 x 6˝ | HM438 VASE | blue hare’s fur glaze with snow cap | 9 x 6.25 x 6.25˝ | HM437 glaze. Miyamura has stated, “I create my of his vases, sometimes resulting in feath- sels because the glazes provide a sympho- own interpretations of classical forms, ery streaks, other times in a glistening ny of finishes—profound pools of subtle while trying to achieve a clarity and sim- shimmer frozen in accentuated rivulets. undertones pair with translucent areas of plicity of line. I am very conscious of the The diminutive handles and necks would color where the porcelain is nearly visible, ways in which a form interacts with the never be used to lift the vase but offer geo- and glossy stretches dissolve into matte space around it. I want my pieces to feel in metric elements around which the glaze finishes like steam on a mirror. balance with their environment, to feel as shines like well-burnished metallurgy. Mi- Miyamura has mindfully developed a though they co-exist naturally with their yamura often uses his fingers in the throw- select number of glazes, all of which can surroundings.” Miyamura’s admiration ing process to create wave-like flutes, be temperamental to work with but em- for the clean-lined aesthetic of many Eu- sometimes with a thick wale around the body the limitless search for awe-inspiring ropean porcelain houses is evident in his body of the vase, sometimes with thin beauty that defines his process. Miyamu- unfussy shapes and pristine finishes. For ridges around the neck or top, sometimes ra’s signature gold glaze, developed after Miyamura, shape and glaze work in con- with horizontal and vertical together in the artist moved to the United States, was cert in the creation of captivatingly beau- one vessel, but always finely trimmed and the result of a small and unexpected patch tiful, spiritually transporting works of art. smoothly polished. Miyamura often com- that appeared during the testing phase of Smooth white surfaces form an ideal foil bines roundness, flatness, ribbing, and another glaze. This tiny spot motivated for the chemical elements of his glazes to protuberances in one piece to provide a Miyamura to try to create a gold glaze, migrate, circle, and merge. stage on which a single glaze (or two or even though it was without precedent in Inside the hot kiln, the glaze flows three complementary glazes) dance seam- ceramics and not something he had ever slowly down the gently sloping shoulders lessly. Texture is created on the sleek ves- attempted to make before. Miyamura 7 VASE | crackle glaze with ink rub | 13 x 10.5 x 10.5˝ | HM432 8 LIDDED JAR | yellow crystalline glaze | 14 x 12 x 12˝ | HM445 9 VASE | iron crystalline glaze | 3.25 x 3.25 x 3.25˝ | HM411 sought a gold that was not showy or overt- The crackle glaze, another in Miyamu- believe this may have been unintentional. ly shiny (many of his test gold glazes came ra’s diverse glazing vocabulary, results The accidental micro-crystals of the Song out too burnished or too dark); instead when a base material and a surface mate- Dynasty pots pale in comparison to the he envisioned a quiet yellow gold with a rial cool at different rates and separate from purposeful macro-crystals of Miyamura’s subtle aqua undertone, where only the one another.