Rippling Wave (Hamon)

The use of sand to suggest the movement of water is common in traditional Japanese raked sand, or kare sansui, gardens. The most famous example is the sixteenth-century garden of the Zen temple Ryonanji in Kyoto, which in expressing the expanse of the oceans is intended to represent the entire universe. In order to achieve the same effect in his ceramic vessel, Sakiyama constructed the form from three slabs of clay that were carved into the wave pattern. After firing the vase once, he then covered it with a sand-infused glaze and refired it to stoneware temperature.