Visiting Rosanjin Exhibition

I went to the exhibition of Rosanjin Kitaoji at Mitsui Memorial Museum yesterday. Rosanjin is known as the last giant of the Japanese traditional art history. He was a multi-talented artist but most famously known of his ceramic works and as a gastronomist, while being an owner and producer of the luxury Japanese restaurant, Hoshigaoka Saryo. He also left more than several essays that many of them are gourmet-related.

The exhibition mainly consists of ceramics and wooden-based lacquerwares. A few of his calligraphic works are also there. Unfortunately, I do not have any photos from the exhibition to post, as no photos allowed in the museum. Instead, you can find part of the collections from the exhibition here (and here, too).

Mitsui Memorial Museum, located near Nihonbashi in the heart of Tokyo, mainly introduces masterpieces of the Japanese art through their exhibitions. They also have a vast of their own collection among the ceramics, religious sculptures, paintings, calligraphies, swords, and etc… If you’ll have a chance to visit the city in near future, the exhibition will be held until 6/26.

Lastly, this is my only Rosanjin-related ones from my tableware shelf. Five small plates that are the reproduction of Rosanjin’s works. They are small as 9.5cm diameter. I use it for serving small amusements as starters, such as olives and cheese. Or, going Japanese, they’d be salted squid, salted fish eggs, and tsukemono (pickled vegetables).

Memory from last winter pt.2 - Yurine

Yurine is root of lily. Yes, lily as the flower, and Japanese eat it's root. Yurine is most popularly known among Japanese as one of the assorted ingredients contained in chawanmushi which is steamed egg custard. What on the above picture is simply boiled with salted water, and crushed pickled plum(umeboshi) is set aside as condiment.

 
Texture of cooked yurine resembles to potato. More precisely, you feel it somewhat smoother than potato in your mouth once you bite. Cooked yurine creates neither any scent nor rich flavor, but slight sweetness. For me personally, smooth texture is the best part to enjoy this root.

For the black bowl that served yurine, sorry again, I do not have info about where this was made. Based on the black glaze, you can partly see the orange glaze. We call it persimmon glaze that is called ‘kakiyu’ in Japanese (I will explain the variety of glazes used for Japanese pottery in my later posts). This combination of glaze can popularly be seen among Mashiko-ware (however I can’t be sure that this particular one is from Mashiko, such style can also be seen among Tanba-ware and etc...). In the very bottom of the bowl around the lower rim, you see unglazed part that "bare roasted clay" is shown. It's in reddish brown color that gives difficulty to distinish from kakiyu with my photos (sorry for the poor quality photos.... I have to learn photography...). Orange parts seen inside of the lower rim and around the top rim are the persimmon glaze.

 

My personal highlight of this bowl is how the persimmon glaze is mingling into the black and dripping downward from the top rim.Two photos below are the detailed look of the dripping, with and without the flash. The reason I posted one with the flash is that the reflection of the light shows the drips better. The reflection is made by iron containment in both of the black and persimmon glazes. It’s colored somewhat like the oil in the water. Each drip going downward is thin as hair. Chinese people  actually call such dripping “rabbit’s hair”, and I love the way it is called.

Memory from last winter - Grilled Kuwai

 

Kuwai (Threeleaf Arrowhead) is the plant that can easily be found in large part of Asia, Europe, and Americas. However, it’s had less chances of being utilized for the gastronomy. As a gastronomic interpretation of this plant, it’s root is the part to be enjoyed. The texture of kuwai root is somewhere between chestnut and potato once heated, while the taste is somewhat sharper and bitterer. Popular way of cooking it in Japan is peeling the skin off then simmer it in a pot. It is one of the popular assorted treats for New Year’s Day meal (Osechi). Ones on the above photo, I grilled it with leaving the skin on. Skin can also be eaten in this way. Simply sprinkle a pinch of salt on to proceed “bon appetite”.

Not many Japanese eat kuwai except pot-simmerd ones as New Year’s day meal. I discovered the grilling method by a gourmet essay written by a Japanese novelist Tsutomu Mizukami, with his experience as a servant boy at a Buddhist temple in his chilhood. During the time, he prepared meals for the priests in the temple.

 

 

Two potteries are used to serve the kuwai and salt. One that kuwai’s are on, sorry, I don’t have much info about this. I have to go back to the store I bought and ask about it… I simply love how the black glaze is sharply splashed on dark brown. This also creates profound gradation of the color transforming from brown to black.

 

This yellow one, that salt was on, is Fujina-ware that is located in northwestern Japan called Shimane pref. The yellow glaze is a good contrast with the darker presentation of kuwai dish. Fujina, is also well-known by Japanese pottery lovers in making British-influenced slipware.

Beefy Tuesday

Sake, beef, and pottery - all Japanese made

Taste of Spring in Kizeto Warisansho Bowl

Firefly squid with Nanohana (Chinese colza) in Kizeto Warisansho.

Originally, Kizeto is a type of pottery that was presumablly produced around mid-late 1500's (between late Muromachi and early Momoyama era) in Seto region. After centuries of disappearance, modern potters started to make Renaissance of it, by refering fragments of the original pottaries found at some relic sites in  Seto. "Ki" means yellow in Japanese. "Zeto" is the transformed use of the word "Seto".

Warisansho is a type of bowl, used to serve small dish. "Wari" means broken or cracked, and  "Sansho" is  Japense Pepper in English. The bowl looks like a fruit of the pepper being cracked. For this perticular bowl, diameter from top is 12cm and height is 8cm approxiately.


 

    

Up-close texture
 

Greeting

I am japanglishman, based in Tokyo. With this blog, I will post the cuts from my daily life, mainly about Japanese pottery, cuisine, and wondering around the city. Hope you'll enjoy them!