antique on the run

Soma Toyotomi was very efficient, and after three days, he chose a master for Sai Wei.This master is more than seventy years old and lives at the foot of Yuejian Mountain all year round, making some clay pots and vases for the shrine on the mountain.

"Don't look at Mr. Koishikawa as if he is not well-known in the pottery circle in Kyoto, but his craftsmanship is still good. When I was a child, I asked him to make pottery at home. There is a clay pot that my mother-in-law still uses to arrange flowers in it. "

Soma Toyotomi obviously admired this old potter, "Old Mr. Koishikawa has been making pottery for so many years. Although he is incomparable to your former master Mr. Hiroya Ito, it will definitely be no problem to teach you the basic things."

"Oh, and, don't worry that he will recognize you. Yuejian Mountain is farther away. The old man is old and rarely goes out. Even if he has heard your name, he can't recognize your face. You can do whatever you want. Just change your name and don’t say you’re Dutch.”

Soma Toyotomi brought Saiwei to the pottery workshop run by the old Mr. Koishikawa, made up a random name of Shotaro and introduced him to the old man. By the way, he paid Saiwei's tuition fee out of his own pocket and prepared to leave.

After all, as Master Akanishi's servant, he had to do things with the salary given by Master Akanishi.In the past few days, he came out more frequently by looking for the reason for the oil painting. Now that the oil painting has been found, it is time for him to go back to work.

Although he was sorry for not being able to study with Sewei, Sewei was very satisfied.

joke!No matter what, Toyotomi Soma has also seen Natsukawa Qingizumi's pottery making skills before. If he really stays here and doesn't leave, he will have to reveal his secrets.

"Young man, what is your name..." Old Mr. Koishikawa is probably old, and his memory is not particularly good, so he forgot the name that Souma Toyotomi just said.

Saiwei hurried forward, "Master, my name is Shotaro."

"That's right, Shotaro." The old man clapped his hands, "Then what, Shotaro, are you here to learn how to make pottery?"

"Yes, I want to learn how to make a pottery dish."

"Porcelain plate?" Mr. Xiaoshichuan looked at him suspiciously, waved his hand and said, "Hey, what's so easy to learn about that thing, wouldn't it be better to learn some clay pots and vases."

The old man felt that since he had received tuition from others, he had to teach well. Compared with pottery plates with no technical content, clay vases and pots are obviously better for honing skills.

It's a pity that Saiwei is bitten to death, as long as he learns pottery plates, pots and vases, we will talk about it later.

In the end, the old man was tortured to the point where he couldn't help it, and said: "It's all up to you, if you want to learn pottery plates, then learn pottery plates."

He took a good look at Sai Wei's face against the light, "Yo, I didn't see it just now, it's still a foreigner."

He scratched his loose white hair, and muttered, "It's strange, why these days are full of foreigners wanting to learn how to make pottery, there was a man named Natsume or Xia Ze before you—"

"Xia Chuan."

"Yes, Xia Chuan! The one named Xia Chuan—Polish?"

"……Dutch."

"That's right, the Dutchman! Look at my memory. This Dutchman named Xia Chuan is said to be very good at making pottery. Even my old man has heard of his reputation. But I don't really believe it." , You said that he is a young man who has only learned how to make pottery for a few years, how could he be so good, most of them are blown out.... Oh, I forgot to ask, where are you from?"

"I am French."

"France? Come to think of it, France, France—oh! It's France! Oh, that's great!"

In the hearts of the Japanese of this era, both England and France are powerful and awesome.

"Then you have to work hard, try to compare with that Xia Chuan, how can France not compare to the Netherlands!"

After putting down a big hat on Sewi, the old man stopped talking. He turned around and sat in front of the cart, dug a piece of brown-gray clay from the wooden barrel beside him, pointed at it, and said: " Here, just stand here and read it, and if you understand it, go to the wheel cart opposite to do it."

The old man has never taught an apprentice before, and he doesn't know how to teach an apprentice. He thinks that he can do it a few times by himself.

He deftly threw the clay onto the wheel, and with a light push, the wheel started to spin at a constant speed.His weather-beaten hands looked dry and old, but when they touched the clay, they suddenly became incredibly flexible.

With his palms facing each other, he first shaped the irregular clay on the car plate into a regular hemisphere, then pressed down from top to bottom with a fist in one hand, and pinched out the edge with the thumb and forefinger of the other hand, and soon a prototype of a pottery plate appeared .

The next step is fine work. He picked up a small knife, his pupils shrank suddenly, and he leaned forward, pressing the sharp thin blade against the surface of the rapidly rotating body. It was immediately cut off by a knife, and the slender and curly clay clay strips were planed like shavings and fell to the ground, leaving a smooth disk surface.

The whole process took less than 5 minutes from start to finish.

"Understood?" The old man stopped the car and asked Sai Wei.

Saiwei: "..."

It seems that I understand it, but he still can't do it himself at all. Hey——

He didn't speak, and the old man thought he understood, so he drove him to the opposite wheel cart to study on his own, and he would ask any questions.

Saiwei couldn't tell because of his suffering, so he resigned himself to his fate and sat on the small bench in front of the wheel cart, put Qi Xiao on his knees, and tried following the steps memorized just now——

He successfully made a clay cake!

He didn't believe in evil, threw the mud pie aside and made it again——

The second piece of pie came out shockingly!

But he was not knocked down by the failure, and stood up tenaciously.

At the end of the day, Saiwei himself didn’t know how many pottery plates he had made. From the mud pancakes at the beginning, to the slight arcs, and finally to the basic shape of a pottery plate...

"Although it was very difficult at the beginning, I gradually felt a little bit later."

At night, one person and one cat were lying on the tatami mats, and Sai Wei raised his hands in the air, still subconsciously simulating the movements of making pottery.

"Qi Xiao, talent is something that you can't even envy."

Because he "played" Xia Chuan Qingquan, a generation of outstanding pottery masters with outstanding talents, the order of time and space endowed him with the same talent as Xia Chuan Qingquan, which made him learn pottery with divine help.

This is also a thick golden finger.

Saiwei's progress is very remarkable. It took only three days to learn how to knead a pottery dish, and how to use a knife to carve the surface of the pottery dish more evenly and smoothly.

The speed at which he learned even the old Mr. Koishikawa was amazed, and he bluntly said that given the reputation of Shiri Shotaro, he would definitely surpass that Natsukawa Kiyomi.

However, the only thing the old man was dissatisfied with was that Saiwei was only willing to make pottery plates and refused to try other pottery.

"Are you still only making pottery dishes today? I'm making pottery bowls for the shrine. How about it? Do you want to help?"

On the fourth day of his apprenticeship in Saiwei, Mr. Xiaoshichuan sincerely extended the invitation again.

Seeing that Saiwei was silent, the old gentleman said with disapproval on his face: "The pottery plate is not of high practical value, and it is not difficult to make. You should make other things, such as clay pots and pots. All right, don't hold on to the pottery all the time."

He thinks that Sai Wei came to him to learn crafts, since he learned crafts, how can he just hold on to one of them.

These days, he has heard this set of theory Sai Wei countless times, and he immediately blurted it out, "Okay, old man, I understand, but I'll practice the pottery plate first, and I'll do it next time." Yes...Oh, by the way, if you have time, can you teach me how to carve? "

"Carving? Hey, what's so difficult about carving." The old man waved his hands indifferently and said, "Here, I'll draw a pattern for you. You can learn to carve yourself with a knife."

Old Mr. Xiaoshichuan is sitting on a small bench, holding a pottery plate in his left hand and holding an ink pen in his right hand. When his wrist is lifted and turned, smooth and beautiful black lines appear on the surface of the pottery plate.

While quickly drawing patterns, he said: "You have never carved flowers, so I will give you the simplest lotus leaf pattern first, and then change to difficult ones after you are familiar with it."

He said it lightly, but Sewei stared at the dense and complicated lotus leaf pattern on the pottery plate, and couldn't take it easy for a long time.

Is this the easiest?

Sure enough, the masters are among the people...