While trimming is considered a basic technique, one today must wonder, what qualities are we really looking for in a foot?
The contemporary studio pottery movement today represents an extremely diverse field. What once was described simply as functional, has splintered into factions based on aesthetic interests and technique creating specialized conference attending sects such as the wood firing community. Innovation, expression, and social issues have centered on the recent past and clay trends are moving away from traditional concepts and aesthetics, breaking the molds that were the conventions of studio pottery. As we reflect on 100 years since the creation of the initial studio pottery movement, I probe one element of this genre still relevant today. The foot.
Contemporary criticism of Bernard Leach and his mingei movement colleagues has questioned the authenticity and core concepts of the theory, with Leachian concepts today famously described by Garth Clark as “losing”. Even in Japan mingei has faced criticism for a lack of contemporary relevance. This art theory has however generated a distinctly wabi aesthetic residue flourishing within international studio pottery today
Japanese trained Leach (Kenzan VII) was a maker of tea bowls and is primarily responsible for introducing the pottery foot fetish to the West. Kodai in Japanese, the foot is an element of pot making that has been a vital aspect of pottery appreciation and criticism in Japan since the tea masters of the Momoyama period. While trimming is considered a basic technique, one today must wonder, what qualities are we really looking for in a foot?
It is the throwing of a, the Japanese tea bowl in which feet appear to hold significant cultural importance. In fact the foot fetish of tea bowls is so intense that in Japanese pottery books the feet are often documented in photograph and elevated stands and mirrors are utilized for foot viewing in the best of museum display settings. Visit any boutique gallery exhibition in Tokyo and you will witness collectors gazing at the bottom of bowls, inspecting .
