A full, rounded bottle vase with a short neck and a rolled lip, its body circled by fine throwing rings.
This piece stood where the fire was fiercest. Wood ash fell thick across one shoulder and melted into a river of natural glass — bronze, silver and amber — that runs diagonally down the body, rippled and raised like a mountain ridge seen from the air. Above it, a band of smoky charcoal grey wraps the shoulder; below, the clay glows a soft peach and persimmon. On the far side, pale rounds of botamochi mark where small clay discs held back the flame, crossed by fine dark lines drawn by the fire. A rare and dramatic firing.
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: 141 mm
Width: 104 mm
Mouth: 26 mm
Capacity: 480 ml
Weight: 510 g
Fragile by nature and packed for the journey. Ships worldwide from Japan.
