Shark Skin Glaze, Kairagi

Perhaps my favorite Hagi glaze is Kairagi or Shark Skin, which as far as I understand is so named because it was said to resemble the sharkskin placed over the handles of Samurai's swords. But the characteristic appearance of a Kairagi glaze is a white straw ash appearance glaze with lots of exposed clay underneath with the glaze crawling at many unique angles.

This hohin (hobin ) is one such glazed item, while the Yunomi pictured below is a second. Both of which are by the artist Mukuhara Kashun.

These are the only two Mukuhara Kashun pieces I currently have, but I am loving them every chance I get. Although I will say I have only seen this glaze done by one other artist and Kashun is by far the better of the two in terms of execution of this glaze. The most amazing thing about him pulling off this glaze while Hagi is known for showing off use through staining, even these pieces in pristine condition show stains in the wrinkles in the glaze.

Simple Elegance, porcelain

This is slightly surprising even to me, as I tend to love ceramics that show off wabi sabi, but yet I highly treasure certain of my highly refined and exacting porcelain pieces. Especially with a simple painted design often done completely in one color, I feel gives the piece a striking look of perfection.

I honestly feel it is due to the nature of porcelain, that it can come across as "perfect." Colorful or highly decorated glazes seem to behave quite differently in different circumstances, which I feel are likely to evoke very strong emotions in terms of love or hate. The fact that porcelain is pure white, with perhaps a painted design seems to distance it from most emotions, the most you can say is I do not like the shape, or the design is not my favorite.

It is often the simpler the design I feel people have less of a reason to take a stance towards or against. But the perfection and the lack of flair often attempted to be shown off by other styles of tea ware.

I still prefer Japanese teaware, and glazed and slightly more stylized pieces, but I was taking a while to admire the simple porcelain pieces today, and was amazed at their simple elegance.