This Akazu-yaki Nezumi Shino chawan (matcha bowl) has a classic blue-grey glaze and is decorated with a traditional kikkō (亀甲 - tortoiseshell) motif. These bowls were designed and produced as a collaboration between Tezumi and Katō Hiroshige of Kasen Kiln.

Following the traditional Nezumi Shino technique, each bowl was hand-thrown and then the design is painted on using a clay paste. On top of this, the entire surface is coated with iron-rich oni-ita, and the clay paste of the design areas is scraped off, revealing the bare clay underneath. Finally, the bowl is given a feldspar-rich white Shino glaze. In the design areas, the white is visible, but where it overlaps with the iron-rich oni-ita which fires into a brown or black, the two layers combine to produce a soft blue-grey. Areas where the Shino glaze is thin show more oni-ita and appear brown.
Each bowl is handmade, glazed, and painted by Katō Hiroshige, using natural materials from the area surrounding his workshop.

Please note that due to the organic nature of hand-throwing, glazing, and painting, there are variations between pieces, with each bowl being unique in shape and design. Three pieces are pictured above to display these natural variations.

Shino (志野) glaze represented a step forward in Japanese ceramics, being the first white glaze developed there, sometime in the mid 1500s. Made predominantly from feldspar, this glaze produces a milky white colour with a surface that is occasionally textured with pinholes, called 'suana' (nest holes) or 'yuzuhada' (ゆず肌 - yuzu skin) in Japanese. Shino chawan were typically hantsutsu-gata (半筒型 - half cylindrical type), which became the popular style for Japanese chawan during the Momoyama era. Undecorated white shino is called mujishino (無地志野) where the main attractions are the glaze’s natural colour variations and the orange-brown hi-iro (火色 - fire colour/marks). This white glaze served as a sort of blank canvas, allowing potters to paint designs using iron glaze in a sub-style called e-shino (絵志野 - painted shino). In addition to white, the glaze could also be made in red as beni-shino (紅志野 - red shino) or a greyish-blue called nezumi-shino (鼠志野 - mouse-coloured shino) or haiiro-shino (灰色志野 - ash-coloured shino)

Katō Hiroshige (加藤裕重) is a 14th generation potter, and the 12th head of Kitagama Kasen (喜多窯 霞仙), based in the Akazu hills in Seto. In the early Edo period, his family was one of four protected by the Tokugawa Shogunate in order to fire tea ceremony utensils for Nagoya Castle. These Oniwa-yaki (garden fired) wares for the Nagoya Tokugawa developed into a style called Ofukei (御深井). His family's kiln is the only remaining of those original four.

Katō-san specializes in traditional Mino and Seto styles such as Shino and Oribe, as well as the Akazu-yaki speciality of Ofukei. In addition, Katō -san loves developing new styles and pursuing his own unique artistic expression.

Akazu-yaki (赤津焼), from Akazu in Aichi Prefecture, is often seen as merely a subset of Seto-yaki, however Akazu is one of the oldest pottery sites in the region was also the official kiln site for the Tokugawa family in Nagoya castle, with Akazu potters also firing wares in the castle garden. Many of the styles associated with Mino-yaki were originally developed in Akazu. The turmoils of the Sengoku Era caused potters to flee the Seto region over the mountains to Mino. Today, the Akazu traditions are upheld by roughly a dozen potters.

Dimensions:

11.5cm (4.5in) - width
8cm (3.1in) - height

Condition: New

This Japanese item ships from the United States.