The summer drought of pottery exhibitions is slowly ending and the wonderful autumn season, so full of good exhibitions, is about to start. Come September, exhibitions too numerous to list will fill gallery spaces throughout Japan and pottery enthusiasts will have their hands full -- with a few good pots, I hope.

For those interested in collecting Japanese pottery there are numerous ways to get started. My first purchase ever, in 1985, was a small 100 yen vase at my local supermarket, during one of their bargain sales. Then I started to haunt the recycle centers and antique markets, and although the pickings were slim I have found some winners: an Edo Period large Seto chatsubo (tea leaf jar) and a Ken Fujiwara Bizen kabin (vase), as well as a few odds and ends like hashioki (chopstick rests), yunomi (tea mugs) and some good chadansu (tea chests) for display.

Next I visited museums, galleries, bookstores and the potters' workshops, always observing much more than spealing. After I had gained a little confidence, I started dabbling in small auctions that offer contemporary ceramists' pieces, often below department store exhibition prices. I'll take a bargain on Japanese pottery any day!

After the bubble years, a few larger houses got into the game and one of the more successful auctions is the Shinwa Art Auction, which features contemporary pottery four times a year. Their next auction takes place Sept. 14. As at a recycle center, there are few bargains to be found, but Shinwa does offer pieces at prices considerably below what department stores charge. The downside is that although a piece may be by some famous ceramist, the quality does vary; kiln unloadings (kamadashi) by even the most seasoned veterans may yield unsuccessful pieces.

About 20 percent make it to an exhibition, with the rest going to galleries, or being broken and thrown away, or given away as freebies with a purchase. Just because it's a Shoji Hamada doesn't mean a piece is something to do a song and dance about. There are some works by "names" that I wouldn't buy or take for free, they're that inferior.

This time around Shinwa is offering 208 lots, with pieces by the likes of Tokuro Kato, Rosanjin, Hamada, Tomimoto and Shimaoka; all in all, 60 ceramists works will be put under the hammer, if you'll pardon the expression.

In terms of numbers, Hamada's work leads the pack with 38 lots offered; some are good, like lot 126: a massive charger that has a spontaneous black drip glaze (a technique that Hamada excelled at) forming a square over a white glaze; inside the square Hamada has painted a sugar millet. Lot 117, a small brush stand, isn't bad either with its red overglaze enamel designs that Hamada learned in Okinawa.

Some should have been left in the closet, though, like lot 99, one of the most pathetic Hamada plates I've ever seen. It does have the sugar millet motif that Hamada is known for, but so what when the whole balance, coloring, and vibrancy of the plate falls flat. Indeed there are many Hamadas in the sale, but no major pieces.

Bargain is a relative word; for these items the prices start around 100,000 yen. If I did have the purchasing power there are a few lots I would love to come home with, like lot 18, a bluish porcelain box by Sueharu Fukami; lot 30, a dynamic Bizen vase by Ryuichi Kakurezaki; lot 163, a Nezumi Shino vase by Mineo Okabe; or lot 167, a small, yet dignified Shino guinomi (sake cup) by Rosanjin -- bids on this little one start at 800,000 yen.

I'm allowed to dream.

Catalogs for the auction are available for 3,000 yen from Shinwa at (03) 3289-8480, fax (03) 3289-8418. Previews allowed on Sept.13-14 and special previews before that by contacting Shinwa. The auction begins at 5 p.m. Sept. 14.

Another smaller auction house is Japan Art Auction (JAA); more information can be had by contacting them at (03) 3574-6543. I've picked up some real bargains there.

I've never really been a big fan of porcelain. The smoothness and calculated perfection always pale in my eye compared to shizen-yu (natural ash-glaze) ceramics.

Yet that doesn't mean that I haven't been watching what's up and who's who in the porcelain world (for I know that many do treasure porcelain). One of the leaders of Japanese porcelain is Fumio Shimada, who's having an exhibition at Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi department store's sixth-floor gallery Aug. 31-Sept. 5.

Shimada's work follows in the footsteps of all the great teachers who have taught at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (Geidai) where he studied, and now teaches: Yoshimichi Fujimoto (1919-1992) and Koichi Tamura (1918-1987), both Living National Treasures, and Akira Asano (1923-1998).

Yet unlike Fujimoto's multicolored enamels, Tamura's iron glazes or Asano's simple, cartoonlike floral sketches, Shimada's works are done primarily with gosu, cobalt blue, which varies in subtle hues depicting the plants and flowers that he observes on his mountain hikes.

Other colors on his porcelain palette include pale greens and burgundy reds. Every piece in the catalog sent to me has some image of foliage on it, whether a camellia, an orchid or even an aloe.

"I often take walks with my sketchbook and draw in sumi what I'd like to paint on my vessels," he said recently. "I also want to have my designs differ from those of nihonga [Japanese-style painting] where nature is also a central theme."

When viewing Shimada's work nihonga-esque views fill the eye, yet there is a large difference in the color scheme. Some forms work better than others; his large plates and jars (tsubo) are more effective than the smaller pieces such as kogo (incense boxes) or guinomi. These smaller works need more space for Shimada to get the effect of space and line that is found on his larger pieces.

His koro (incense burners) are an exception to the size problem; although small, they are well balanced in design, line and form. Many of his colleagues working in earthenware or stoneware use wood-fired kilns because they want the "happenings" that occur within. Shimada tried that also at one point in his career. Through trial and error, however, he discovered that even stoic porcelain can have "happenings" occur in the kiln, albeit on a much subtler level. A shade of color takes some unexpected change or the even-etched lines somehow bend in a way other than intended. He returned to working with porce-lain.

His work often has very clean engraved lines like those of Song Dynasty Chinese celadons; I'd even go to say that his work resembles that of Hazan Itaya (1872-1963 -- a Song revivalist) and First-Empire Japonisme more than that of his es-teemed teachers.

Now in his own right he is leading the way at Geidai with his eloquently simple porcelains that I hope withstand the test of time in order to become classics. You be the judge.

Other shows of interest:

To celebrate the centennial of the birth of Bizen's second Living National Treasure Kei Fujiwara (1899-1983), a large retrospective (about 120 piec-es) at Nihonbashi Takashi-maya department store's eighth-floor gallery Sept. 2-13. Admission 800 yen, students 600 yen. Coinciding with the show will be Kei's son Yu's show Sept. 8-14 at the sixth-floor gallery.

Utensils for a writer's desk: inkstones, brush holders and water pourers by Masamichi Yoshikawa, at Akasaka Green Gallery until Sept. 11.

A Bizen favorite of mine, Toko Konishi, in Nagoya at Mitsukoshi department store's seventh-floor gallery Sept. 1-6.

In Kyoto at Tachikichi's third-floor salon, the world of Karatsu potter Jinenbo Nakagawa, until Sept. 7.

Finally, thanks to all of you who attended the sake seminar with John Gauntner and me the other night -- it was great fun and I hope to see you at the next one.

E-mail Robert Yellin at [email protected]