In the 1990s, I lived in Japan where my favorite pastime was visiting famous pottery villages to watch the artists at work. I bought this exquisite vase from one of the Kutani-yaki pottery kilns, in Ishikawa Prefecture, located just west of the famous Japanese Alps. The vase is encircled by layers of high mountain ridges in hazy gray and pastel colors, producing a dreamlike mood. The artist complemented the natural beauty of the mountains by using a lightly sandy, matte texture over the surface
