A tall, gently tapering vase shaped like a traveller's flask, made to hang on a wall from a single loop at the shoulder — the loop itself carved by hand into small facets, like whittled wood. It stands just as happily on a shelf.
The clay fired a deep persimmon red. Across it rest soft, dark rounds of grey — botamochi, the shadows of small clay discs placed against the pot in the kiln, which held back the flame and left the bare clay beneath. Ash gathered on the rim in a rough, frosted crust and ran down the neck in a single drip of gold.
Unglazed Bizen stoneware, wood-fired in one continuous firing near Bizen, Okayama (GPS 34.7456°N, 134.1894°E). Its colour and markings are kiln transformation (yōhen) — the record of earth and flame in a single moment, not a pattern anyone chose. One of a kind, shaped by human hands, and impossible to reproduce. Traceable to the kiln that made it.
Dimensions
Height: 160 mm
Width: 67 mm
Mouth: 22 mm
Capacity: 240 ml
Weight: 290 g
Fragile by nature and packed for the journey. Ships worldwide from Japan.
