This elegant Kyo-yaki chawan (matcha bowl) has a fun spin on a classic shape with a subtly flattened front and faceted bottom. Atop the red clay, this chawan has a soft purple glaze, decorated with hand-painted shidarezakura (枝垂れ桜 - weeping cherry blossoms) on the face and on the inside. The inside is further decorated with a brushstroke of white slip in the Korean hakeme (刷毛目) style
Specifications
Made in Japan. Ships from the United States.
Width: 12 cm (4.7 in)
Height: 7.8 cm (3.1 in)
Please note that due to the organic nature of hand-throwing, glazing, and painting, there are subtle variations between pieces, with each bowl being slightly unique in shape and design.
Kyō-yaki Ceramics
Kyō-yaki (京焼) is a type of Japanese pottery that traditionally comes from Kyoto, Japan. The pottery traditions of Kyoto date back to the 5th century and are varied in their styles. The styles most associated with modern kyō-yaki production began during the 1600s when Nonomura Ninsei perfected his overglaze technique, leading to the elegantly decorated, multi-coloured wares that Kyoto has come to be famous for.
About Iro-e
There are many styles of chawan produced in the Kyōto area and few are as synonymous with the term Kyō-yaki (京焼 - Kyōto wares) as the colourful overglaze painted styles. While there is no agreed upon term for the general Kyōto style, the term iro-e ( 色絵 - colourful paintings) refers to the technique of overglaze painting. Unlike the painted styles detailed above which used iron pigments applied underneath a transparent glaze, overglaze decoration uses enamels applied on top of the glaze. This allows for much more colourful and detailed designs and images. The development of this style can be traced to three individual potters. Nonomura Ninsei (野々村仁清) and his student Ogata Kenzan (尾形 乾山) pioneered the style in the early-mid Edo period. Later in the 1700s, Okuda Eisen (奥田頴川) introduced porcelain technology to Kyōto which made overglaze painting easier.
About Hakeme
Hakeme (刷毛目 - brush stroke), also known as guiyal in Korean, is a Korean slip decoration technique that was developed at the same time and at the same kilns as mishima in the 15th-16th centuries. Here, white slip is simply applied with a coarse brush (hake) which leaves rough, visible strokes with a lot of expressive character.
This early hakeme seems to primarily be a functional way of applying slip to the piece, with the visible brush strokes being a happy accident. When the slip is brushed across the entire piece, except for the foot, it is called mujihakeme (無地刷毛目-plain hakeme). [yes, the same Muji as the clothes brand] Since porcelain was banned for commoners in Joseon Korea, this was likely a way for the general populace to obtain white ceramics.
The original hakeme chawan likely belong to that first generation of kōrai chawan, but like mishima bowls, many were later designed and ordered by Japanese teaists.
These later bowls tended to use hakeme as decoration rather than a means to apply a white coating. As such, there were often fewer brush strokes and these were often coarser and more deliberately expressive. In fact, today it is most common to find hakeme that is merely a single brushstroke, almost as an application of the zen enso onto pottery.
Through its history hakeme was often combined with mishima. After all, brushing was how the slip was applied before it was scraped off!
Meet Murakami Iku (村上郁) About the Artist
Murakami Iku (村上郁) of Fukuiku Kiln (馥郁窯) has over 45 years of experience, and now creates his wares in Sumiyama, a mountainous pottery village on the outskirts of Kyoto. He specialises in hand-painted wares alongside mishima styles.
