Japanese Ceramics and Ikebana - a Shirobey's Course
Japanese art is like no other.
For all its refinement and delicacy, at its heart, it breathes the pure spirit of nature.
This is nowhere more clear than in Japanese pottery, whose very essence is a unity of the natural elements: earth, air, water, wood, and metal in the oriental tradition, or equally apposite, earth, air, fire, and water in that of the West.
A fish won’t talk to you about water; Shirobey won’t tell you about the life force that imbues his work. He will talk to you about how we need beauty to inspire and make us healthy and strong. He will show you how the aesthetic combination of atmosphere, environment, and fresh, simple ingredients have propelled Japanese food to the pinnacle of world cuisine. If you are fortunate, he might even offer you a tantalizing taste of his exceptional culinary skills.
In the Japanese Ceramics and Ikebana Course, which uniquely blends ceramics with the equally venerable Japanese traditions of Ikebana and Tea Ceremony, he will do much more. He will share his remarkable craftsmanship and technical mastery, step by step, from the basics of webinar hand techniques and rokuro wheel work to creating your chawan, vessels, and bowls, gently and unobtrusively inspiring you along the way with new ideas and creative tools.
You won’t learn in so many words, but you will grasp the strange bond between the evanescent beauty of flowers and the solid form of ceramics, which relies purely on changes in our perceptions to acquire new meaning.
As the course progresses, the team will load the 36-hour Sasukenei smokeless wood kiln - a delicate art on which much depends -and then fire it.
It is tense to wait for the kiln to cool and finally see the results of your work. A fine Japanese meal will be the perfect way to restore your strength.
To celebrate the completion of the course - was it really only ten days!? - will be a traditional Japanese tea ceremony.
By John Brodie
(Shirobey’s friend)
Join us for our Japanese Ceramics and Ikebana Course.
An immersive journey guided by Shirobey Kobayashi at Cerdeira - Home for Creativity.