A softly swelling, barrel-shaped flower vase with a plain rolled mouth and two small clay lugs — mimi, 'ears' — on the shoulder. The shoulder took a glossy caramel sheen where ash melted in the kiln, fading to warm plum-brown toward the foot.
Down the front, a long olive-green patch of ash rests like a fallen leaf, finely streaked as if with its veins. Near the foot, a scatter of tiny ash droplets fused into dark green glass. Made for a single stem or a few branches.
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: 135 mm
Width: 71 mm
Mouth: 36 mm
Capacity: 250 ml
Weight: 230 g
Fragile by nature and packed for the journey. Ships worldwide from Japan.
