The purification technology of raw materials for pottery, such as clay, glaze and paint, has developed significantly. This gives the sense that, from the perspective of technological development, modern pottery has already peaked.
It feels that if we use those most advanced materials, we can express any form or colour exactly as we want. However, the essence of pottery is not in creating perfectly manufactured products.
If we look at the Chinese character ‘藝’ (pronounced ‘gei’), which partly composes the characters for ‘Togei’ (meaning pottery), we can see that the structure of this character indicates a person planting in soil. Remembering that, we can probably understand that pottery values the taste of handcraft more than industrial perfection.

In the pottery world, often old craft techniques are rediscovered.
As seen in the term ‘Utsushi (meaning reflection or representation)’, it is normal practice that pottery artists make new work reflecting historical masterpieces.
Izumi Kawashima, a pottery artist, was strongly drawn into a craft technique called ‘white black scraping’ seen in the potteries made at the Cizhou Kiln in the Chinese Sung dynasty (10th-12th Century). She has been making dynamic potteries which can be called representations of those ‘white black scraping’ works.
The process to follow is simple but involves detailed craft techniques. First, make a main shape with grey clays. Next, apply a white engobe over it, followed by a black engobe only on the section that will be patterned, to create a pottery base in three layers of materials. Kawashima then makes the patterns come to the surface by scraping the thin layer of black engobe on the top with a knife.
If the methodology involved painting with a brush, then the colour gradation would become the main charm of the piece. However, as a scraping methodology is used, the charm of the piece lies in creating a shadow-picture-like contrasted lyricism.

Even in a time where we live in a flood of colours, Kawashima continues to be sympathetic to the monochrome design of ‘white black scraping’.
I wonder whether such simplicity of the minimalistic duo tone of white and black might have the effect of making us feel the trace of handcraft more directly. And this might bring us closer to the essence of the craftwork of pottery.