This Bizen-yaki chawan (matcha bowl) is made in the ao-Bizen (青備前 - blue Bizen) style and decorated with a hidasuki pattern. Unlike most Bizen-yaki which is fired in oxidation, ao-Bizen wares are fired in reduction, causing the clay to turn a light bluish-grey. The hidasuki (緋襷/火襷) pattern is a traditional decoration created when the potter wraps rice straw around a piece before placing it into the kiln. There the alkalines in the straw react with iron in the clay body to produce these striking burn marks. Typically hidasuki patterns are red, but in ao-Bizen pieces, they turn a blackish-blue.

This chawan bears the mark of Kimura Pottery (木村興楽園 - Kimura Tourakuen) a Bizen-yaki kiln that has been making pottery for 16 generations since 1675. 

Bizen-yaki (備前焼) is a type of Japanese pottery that traditionally comes from Bizen province, now part of Okayama prefecture, Japan. The site of one of Japan’s Six Ancient Kilns, pottery has been made in Bizen since at least the 14th century.

Fired at high temperature for a long time (as long as 14 days) in wood-burning kilns, Bizen ware is known for its earthen colours and lack of traditional glaze. Because of the clay’s high rate of shrinkage, it is unsuitable for glazing. Instead, the designs found on Bizen ware come from kiln effects and include traces of molten ash resembling glaze and markings resulting from wood-burning kiln firing.

Dimensions:

11.7cm (4.6in) - width
6.8cm (2.7in) - height
150ml - capacity

Condition: Excellent

This vintage Japanese item ships from the United States