The Politics of Art Making

For this post I decided to write about the 'politics' that are behind different styles of throwing pottery. When I first came to Japan I had already taken ceramics classes and had learned how to throw on the wheel, however, we were taught to weigh out the clay, form them into balls and then put one on the wheel and make it into whatever you want (mug, bowl, plate etc). When you are finished making a form, you simply take it off the wheel and move to the next ball of clay. However, the first day that I began to throw here in Japan, Inomata Sensei told me that I should start to throw in a style called 'off the hump'. This is a different style of throwing in which you take one large lump of clay and center it on the wheel and then start from the top and throw multiple forms from this one piece of clay. I had already learned this technique, but only used for certain forms such as pots with lids. So, I started to throw everything 'off the hump' and essentially had to re-learn how to throw forms using this method.

I began to wonder why it was that he wanted us to throw like this instead of doing it the way that we had been taught somewhere else; what was the reasoning behind having a student re-learn something that they already knew how to do, just in another style?

                                                        

A lidded form thrown by Inomata Sensei

So, I talked to Inomata Sensei about this topic. Originally he began to talk about the convenience of throwing 'off the hump'; when you throw 'off the hump' you can make many things off of one piece of clay which means that you don't have to spend the time weighing out and re-centering each ball of clay. I asked him if this was the way his sensei had taught him to throw and he said yes, but that for large forms like vases they use bats (a piece of plastic or wood that you place on top of the wheel and then throw off of so that when you are done you can simply remove the bat).

                                            

Then he began to talk about the differences between the way Westerners and Japanese eat and drink. For instance, Westerners don't generally pick up bowls/mugs and drink from them as the Japanese do, therefore, for Western potters there is no need to throw a bowl with a foot-ring at the bottom (the foot ring, as shown above on a cup that I threw, is handy for the Japanese because they can hold the bowl from the bottom with their middle finger and not get burned by the bottom). In this way, it makes sense that Westerners would throw a bowl or mug with a flat bottom made on a bat rather than off the hump; when you throw off the hump it is much easier to simple pinch in the clay at the bottom of the form when you are done making it thus forming a foot ring. 

So, although it was inconvenient at first for me to learn this new style, I now understand why Inomata Sensei wanted me to learn this way; after all, we ARE in Japan, so it only makes sense to throw pottery which the Japanese could (potentially) use...

**If you are interested in learning a little bit more about Japanese Pottery styles, history and aesthetics, check out this website: 

http://www.burlingtonartcentre.on.ca/Exhibits/japanese_traditional_pottery/japanes_traditional_pottery.html