Vase prices

10/1/07

I certainly don’t understand pottery at all. At a pottery exhibit in a Fukushima city mall we browse among pots and plates of which none is less than 8,000 dollars, top off around 34,000 dollars and travel form that into the land of large decorative platters – price unlisted.
Mr. Ito takes these in with only a modicum of surprise. Occasionally he grunts and stares closely at some unadorned, pot with flat white glaze, and then reconfirms with me that these small, lumpy vases are in fact the works of a master.

We spend some time looking at the adjoining painting exhibit just next door. Huge, beautifully rendered works of waterfalls and mountainsides are on display. They are done with just that touch of abstract artistry that appeals to me. One work in particular, a woman before a great snowy escarpment, strikes me as particularly nice. It measures something like 3 feet by 5 feet, and is priced at 12,000 dollars. Mr. Ito takes one look at the price and exclaims in surprise “Wa!”, as in, “My god! No way is it that much!”
Search me.

-D.C.