A tall, waisted flower vase that flares at both the mouth and the foot, the base cut by hand into facets.
Its two sides tell two stories of the same fire. On one, the vase stood deep in the embers: the clay turned smoky violet-grey and is crusted with molten ash in gold, rust and pewter — rough and cratered like volcanic stone. On the other, two pale round marks sit one above the other, joined by a glowing amber line. These are botamochi — the shadows of small clay discs placed against the pot in the kiln, which kept the flame and ash away and left the bare clay beneath.
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: 150 mm
Width: 74 mm
Mouth: 46 mm
Capacity: 170 ml
Weight: 300 g
Fragile by nature and packed for the journey. Ships worldwide from Japan.
