Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1712 Wabi-sabi Wood Kiln

After dinner, Zhou Zhi took Matsui Zou and Jin Chunyi to Jiukou Township to see the wood-fired kiln.

The kilns in Jiukou Township are all small kilns in the countryside, commonly known as "mantou kilns". When many people talk about kiln firing, they think of the Dalong kiln that takes half a month to fire. In fact, if the output is not required to be too high, the Mantou Kiln, which has been mature since the Northern Song Dynasty, is the most cost-effective kiln.

It saves fuel, saves time, has medium output, and is particularly suitable for firing fine products.

Of course, if you want stable performance, it is best to complete the transformation from coal to electricity. If you pursue the kiln-changing style, the electric furnace can also adjust the temperature and oxygen, which is more controllable than a pure wood kiln.

But the reason why people have pursuits is that they like to dance on the edge of a knife, write with shackles on, first create a bunch of rules and regulations for themselves, and then walk on the tightrope with difficulty to complete it, only then can it be called art.

Lao Zhong, who runs the steamed bun kiln in Jiukou Township, is certainly not aware of this, but due to limited conditions and funds, he has no choice but to use full manual labor.

"The Chai kiln here uses purple clay as the body, which is thick and heavy. The firing method is exactly the same as that of the Jian kiln and Ding kiln in the Song Dynasty." Zhou Zhi introduced a carved green-glazed wine cup to the two people, "The purple mouth and iron foot of the Song Dynasty Ge kiln have the characteristics of gold and iron wire. The latter refers to the cracking caused by stress, while the former is the thin glaze on the mouth of the vessel and the exposed body at the bottom, which is a feature of the purple clay body."

"The purple clay body later evolved into purple sand ware without glaze. Since the Ming Dynasty, it has been completely replaced by kaolin, and the craftsmanship has long been lost."

"So do you know how happy I am to have discovered the 'original' purple clay porcelain here?"

Looking at this porcelain made in Matsuizoku, with its thick clay body, white glaze with a bluish tint, exposed clay at the bottom, and glaze flow and condensation visible on the bottom, and slight cracks on the glaze at the junction of the body and glaze, it feels that it completely fits the "wabi-sabi" beauty pursued by the Japanese.

It should be said that wabi-sabi has reached its extreme.

"This glaze is the 'glaze fruit' that Lao Zhong found in the mountains. It is ground into powder after heating and smoldering, and the impurities are removed by water jetting. The fine materials are then aged." Zhou Zhi said: "We don't know how to select the glaze of the famous kilns in the Song Dynasty, but judging from the characteristics of the finished products, the special glaze color characteristics of some Song Dynasty Guan and Ge kilns, Hutian kiln porcelain, and even Tang Dynasty Yue kiln porcelain can be seen here."

After that, he picked up another small bowl and said, "This is a wooden leaf cup. The wooden leaf cup was first created in the Tang Dynasty and became popular in the Song Dynasty. It is a traditional porcelain-making process of Jizhou Kiln. The characteristic is that the natural leaves are soaked in water and corroded until only the veins are left. The leaf veins are then dipped in glaze water and pasted on the wall of the cup, and then put into the furnace for firing."

"The imitations of wooden leaf cups nowadays are crude, usually made with printing or applique techniques. The veins of the leaves are too dull, and the glaze is too bright, which has lost the true 'ancient style' of the wooden leaf cups."

"For a truly traditional, fully handmade wooden leaf cup, the black glaze base should not be too translucent, and the glass material should be finely controlled. The traces of the wooden leaves should be relatively blurred, but should penetrate into the body and the base glaze, creating a natural and harmonious transition, and it can imitate 70% of the charm of Song dynasty cups." He held the wooden leaf cup and turned it around: "Those like this are the real fine products."

"The Tokyo Museum has a Song Dynasty Jizhou kiln wooden leaf cup with tortoise-shell-like spots on the outer shell. It is known as the 'masterpiece of the world' and has been rated as a national treasure in the island country."

"I asked Lao Zhong to imitate this work. Except for the tortoise shell, everything else is almost the same. Take a look."

Matsui Zuo and Jin Junyi wanted to get their hands on them. After admiring the two pieces of porcelain like treasures, Matsui Zuo was attracted by an incense burner in the room: "The color on this one is also beautiful." "This is kiln-changed glaze." Zhou Zhi said: "The principle of kiln-changed glaze is not complicated. It is made of glazes rich in transition elements such as copper, iron, and zinc. During firing, the kiln temperature and supply are changed by human power, allowing metal ions to repeatedly contact oxidizing flames and reducing flames at different temperatures. The porcelain 'blown' by flames with different oxygen contents will leave traces of various colors on the glaze surface, just like nature uses a pair of magical hands to paint various colorful patterns on the porcelain."

"Take copper ions as an example. Under different firing flames, they can appear from the coldest deep blue to the warmest vermilion. The most extreme kiln-changed glaze porcelain can combine the colors of the dark blue sky at dawn, the purple, red, orange, and golden yellow of the morning glow, and the sky's original blue."

“This is the famous Jun kiln.”

"Of course, not all the kiln-changed glaze porcelains from the Jun kiln and the later imitations of the Jun kiln are colorful." Zhou Zhi turned the incense burner in his hand and said, "This kiln-changed glaze is not like that. Its kiln-changed glaze is mainly completed by reducing the flame, with only slight additions and subtractions in the oxygen concentration and kiln temperature."

"So the overall color is still light sky blue, and only in some areas with thin glaze and prominent contours, the kiln turns it into a metallic yellow-gray color, which is another kind of natural beauty."

Old Zhong had been very nervous, but now he finally relaxed. Xiao Zhou still gave face to the old craftsman in front of outsiders. The kiln-changed glaze in the wood-fired kiln was completely a matter of luck. Even the craftsmen themselves didn't know what the porcelain would look like after it came out of the kiln.

At present, the extreme that Lao Zhong can control is the kiln-fired color of light sky blue and cold gold, or the pure warm color of rose purple and bright red. He dare not even fire the top-grade products with a mixture of warm and cold colors. When it comes to elbow, it actually becomes "another kind of natural beauty".

"It is really exquisite." Matsui Zao bowed deeply to Old Zhong and said, "I wonder how much Master Zhong is willing to pay for it to be transferred to my collection?"

"What is Elbow saying?" Master Zhong was a little confused and said he couldn't understand what the guest with a strange accent meant.

"He is asking you how much you would like to sell this incense burner to him!" Zhou Zhi explained.

"Oh, since he's a friend brought by Elbow, I have to give him some face, then five..."

"Five hundred!" Zhou Zhi immediately interrupted Lao Zhong's random offer: "Lao Zhong and I have a long-standing friendship. I have ordered three kilns of exquisite products from him. This one is even more exquisite than the previous three. Since you like it, Song Jing, I'll give it to you for five hundred."

After saying this, he looked embarrassed: "We can't be too bad, we have to let Mr. Zhong charge us the cost price, right?"

Old Zhong was stunned by what he heard. The clay for the porcelain here was mined by himself, the glaze was dug by himself on the mountain, and even the steamed bun kiln was built by himself and his father in their early years. The cost is the coke and coking coal consumed by each kiln. The cost of one kiln is just a few dollars per piece of porcelain.

So what he wanted to say just now was five dollars, and he really just wanted to charge the cost price.

"Five hundred?" Jin Chun on the side breathed a sigh of relief: "Then I want this Muye cup and this Yingqing wine cup too!"

Just now, after entering this kiln that was obviously a pure handmade workshop, Jin Chunyi didn't even dare to breathe. After a long time of fussing, the price was only 500 yuan per piece. Suddenly, he felt his back stiffened: "I want both of them!"