An apprenticeship in Japan where pottery is an integral part of the culture, it is a rite of passage for a serious studio potter.
Chris Prindle lived in Tokyo as a boy and Yamagata as a young man. During his two years living and working under master potter Toshiko Okazaki, Chris absorbed the customs, language, styles and techniques of Japanese ceramics.
Japanese pottery is famous for its tradition of simple and roughly finished earthenware pottery using muted earth colours. This relates to Zen Buddhism as many of the greatest masters were priests.
Looking at Chis Prindl’s eclectic range of stoneware and porcelain ceramics we see beautiful side dishes, bowls, black shell spiral dinner plates with a musical palette of brightly glazed primary colours which all speak of Cornwall. It is only when identifying the flecked salt glazes, big tamba style vessels, slim ikeban and moon shaped vases, gazing bowls and long spouted teapots - in the spirit of the Japanese tea ceremony - we get a sense of his adherence to time-honoured tradition.
Chris first came across wood firing in Yamagata and has remained a passion ever since. Wood firing takes years of practice to understand the alchemy of fire as well as the great Japanese master Shoji Hamada but Chris Prindl is holding his own - as they say in Japan - ‘work of self, obtainment of self.’
