Low flat dish c. 1990s

This Low Flat Dish, made by Tsuji Seimei, is a lesson in earthy imperfection. Seimei’s touch is all over it, or rather, the lack of obvious intervention. It's a testament to letting the material do its thing. The dish has this warm, sandy color, like something you’d find on a beach after the tide goes out. The surface is raw, unglazed, and marked with what looks like a ghostly cross or abstract bird in flight. It’s not painted on, but embedded, almost like a stain or shadow. The edges are blunt, irregular, like the whole thing was coaxed, not forced, into being. Looking at that central mark, I wonder if it was intentional or an accident, a slip of the hand, or a trick of the kiln. That’s the beauty of ceramics, of art in general—the conversation between control and chance. This piece reminds me of Lucie Rie’s functional forms, humble and quietly radical. It says, "I am what I am," take it or leave it.