Gyozan

On the last trip to Japan I asked Oyakata is we can go visit Gyozan. Gyozan is the name of the kiln, not the person, per-se. The artist’s name is Yukizyou Nakano, but in the bonsai community he is respectfully known as Gyozan-san. This is coming from my Oyakata, Junichiro Tanaka, and not just my opinion. In my opinion, however, he is one of the three top potters to come out of Japan along Tofukuji and Shyuzan, both are not with us any longer.

I have been “friends” with Gyozan on Facebook for a while, and I suggest that you follow him as well. He does not produce pots full time anymore as he is retired, but he still makes pots for fun and take commissioned work sometimes. Knowing that my oyakata is not likely to bother another professional I decided to ask Gyozan myself, through facebook and sent him a message (using google translate which I ran by Oyakata first) and he responded pretty quickly, but in Japanese. At this point I had to get out of the way and asked Oyakata to call him directly so they arranged a plan to stop by on the way to the airport. Nagoya airport is actually in Tokoname, where Gyozan’s house/kiln is located.

So on my llast morning in Nagoya, Oyakata and Martin, the new apprentice at Aichi-en, and I got into the van with all my luggage, and drove down to Tokoname. What follows is a whole bunch of photos from this visit. I remember thinking that I should not be there, that I am not worthy of this experience, that this is better than a dream come true, but the dream was getting better and better as it went on. We walked in and started by just looking around. Oyakata and Gyozan-san were having a lively conversation while Martin and I were looking around and taking pictures, first downstairs than upstairs. His wife was super nice as well and tried talking to us in English. I was getting more and more euphoric seeing all his pots from different years. I did not even know that he made such a wide gamut of glazed pots. At some point I asked Oyakata to tell Gyozan-san that “now I can die happy” and both of us had tears in our eyes (but I probably just imagined it).

Then we went to see the studio and the kiln. And then Oyakata looked at us and said “now we make pots!” I almost lost it. Can you believe that? I have never made a pot, or even considered the possibility of it. So we did what he showed us and answered questions about how we would want the final pot to be. But there was one problem – it was close to 2.5 hours before my flight and we still had clay all over our hands. So I was starting to get nervous, but then I decided that if I miss my flight home because I was making pots with Gyozan so be it – I am still the lucky one.

With about two hours and 15 minutes before my flight Oyakata finally spoke to me and said “Rusty, I have to leave now because I got a call from my client who needs me to come over right away, so Gyozan is going to take you to the airport.” That’s right. I got a ride to the airport from one of the best potters in the world of all time (IMHO) and his wife. They even insisted on walking me to the terminal while I tried telling them that I can find my way and they have done enough.

So, I don’t know how this happened that I had enough good karma to get so lucky, but this is one of those days that I will remember for a long long time.

PS. I got a message from Gyozan-san asking me where to send the pot. I could not bring myself to ask him to send it to the States so instead Oyakata is going to pick it up for me and send it over.