A rock textured Kurinuki tokkuri compliments this guinomi selected to match by Inayoshi Osamu enclosed in the original signed wooden box. The Tokkuri is 5 inches (12 cm) tall, the Guinomi 2-3/4 inches (7 cm) diameter and both are in perfect condition, enclosed in the original wooden box from the artist this summer.
Inayoshi Osamu was born in Aichi prefecture, the heart of Mino country, in 1976...

Grasses grow on the sides of this Tokkuri and accompanying Guinomi by Karatsu legend Maruta Munehiko, each piece enclosed in the original signed wooden box. The E-Karatsu Tokkuri is 11 cm (4-1/4 inches) tall. The E-Karatsu Guinomi is 7 cm (2-3/4 inches) diameter, 6 cm (2-1/2 inches) tall. Both are in excellent condition.
Maruta Munehiko was born the second son of Maruta Masami in Saga prefecture in 1961...

Fairly large bowl of irregular round shape with indentations in upper edge and openings in the side, decorated with a large red lobster. The spiny lobster is traditionally eaten during the New Year...

Always innovative, here is a basin for flower arrangement in pastel Hagi colors by Kaneta Masanao carved and torn from a solid block of clay in the Kurinuki technique enclosed in the original signed wooden box. Making use of a flower frog, I can imagine a fabulous spray of green rising up from within the undulating rim, like the first burst of flora through the last of the winter snow. It is 30 x 21 x 12.5 cm (12 x 8 x 5 inches) and in perfect condition...

Glaze Bidoro sweep upwards toward one red eye on this amazing tsubo by Yukuyoshi Manabe enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Bizen Yohen Tsubo. It is 11 inches (28 cm) diameter, 10-1/4 inches (26 cm) tall and in excellent condition.
Yukuyoshi Manabu was born in Kagatonishi near the heart of Bizen country in 1941. After working in Osaka as a young man, he returned to Bizen to assist the family building supply company...

A Spectacular Bizen Tsubo dripping with ash glaze by Yukuyoshi Manabu enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Bizen Yohen Tsubo (Kiln altered). The rim is covered in built up black ash, which grows more liquid as it enters the burning embers on the side, and is blasted around in rivulets to the back where it has created two shadows of raw earth where another pot was in close proximity. It is 23 cm (9 inches) diameter, 21.5 cm (8-1/2 inches) tall and in excellent condition...

Clog-shaped chawan, tea bowl to be used in the tea ceremony. Over a whitish fine clay a silky black glaze and crackled white slip over which a decoration of interlocked diamonds and rings in iron brown.

Seal impressed in bottom/underside: Juzan. Refers to the Oribe potter Mizuno Juzan.

Mino ware, Oribe style, Japan. Showa era, 1950s

H 3 x W 4.25 in.

Perfect condition

There are at least two generations of Mizuno potters going by the name Juzan...

A set of sake decanters in the shape of Split Bamboo Tea Whisks by the third generation Kiyomizu Rokubei enclosed in the original signed wooden box. The artists stamp is clearly impressed into the nunome cloth-textured base. They are 14 cm (5-1/2 inches) tall and in excellent condition dating from the mid 19th century.
Kiyomizu Rokubei III (1820-1883) was the second son of Rokubei II (1790-1860) and took over the family kiln at the age of 18 after his father retired in 1838...

A Japanese baluster vase painted with two scenes, separated by brocaded curtains. The neck in imitation of a cloth cover also featuring two Shimizu mon. The painting is quite remarkable; please remember when you look at the detail photographs that the vase is just a tad under six inches tall...

A jewel-like miniature ‘Imperial’ Satsuma vase, of baluster form with elephant head handles. One side is decorated with flowering lotus, the other with a gourd vine. The base has the signature Hogetsu beneath a blue Shimizu mon.

Approximately 9.7cm high. Perfect condition...

This past summer I had occasion to visit Richard Milgrim in his Mountain Studio and asked him to pair some sake cups and Tokkuri for us. It is a rare opportunity to have an artist personally select pieces which he feels work together...

A jaw-dropping igneous chawan tea bowl by Inayoshi Osamu like a shimmering mineral deposit found deep inside some calcitic limestone cavern. When I asked him about the effects on the surface, he said that he could not wholly explain them, they were some mystery of the kiln, caused during the firing. The bowl is 13.8 x 13 x 9.5 cm (5-1/2 x 5 x 4 inches) and in excellent condition. It comes enclosed in the original signed wooden box with shiori and shifuku, hand-picked from the artist this summe...

A stone formed bowl covered entirely in platinum by Inayoshi Osamu enclosed in the original signed wooden box accompanied by the shiori and Shifuku. The bowl is carved and torn from a block of clay, then textured with natural stones specially selected for their surface patterns, splashed with glaze and then covered in platinum, creating dry. Matte regions punctuated by glistening liqid spatters. It is 10 cm (4 inches) diameter, 7.5 cm (3 inches) tall and in excellent condition from the artist ...

A fabulous thin walled Bizen basin made for use as a fresh water container for the Japanese Tea Ceremony with black lacquered wooden lid enclosed in the original signed wooden box by Living National Treasure Yamamoto Toshu. This burnished style reminiscent of sangiri techniques is the signature work of this important Bizen artist. Here a plethora of colors vie for dominance on the ordinarily sedate brown clay. It is 22 cm diameter, 13 cm tall and in excellent condition.
For more on th...

A large and important work by Miyanaga Kozan of overall raw clay in a Nanban style with drips of color featuring a tiny colorful crab crawling out of a hollow in the base. It is 30.5 cm (12 inches) tall and in excellent condition, in an age darkened wooden collectors box titled Makuzu Yaki Kabin, Miyagwa Kozan Sei followed by a very large stamp. This is a rarity!
The name Kozan was granted by Prince Yasui-no-Miya in 1851 in honor of the tea ware produced during the later Edo for the imp...

A most unusual tea bowl charred black on one side which emenates a golden glow on the raw earth opposite, by Bizen living national Treasure Yamamoto Toshu enclosed in the original signed double wood storage box titled Bizen Yohen Chawan (Kiln Altered Tea bowl) with silk wrapping cloth. The beauty of kiln altered works is that they are quite often entirely unique. Something unexpected that occurred inside the kiln during the firing or cooling process, that caused a deviation from the norm or ex...

Sturdy storage jar for tea leaves or other goods with horizontally ribbed surface, sloping shoulder with very short neck. Coarse but dense clay with small inclusions. Outside middle brown with cream-colored and yellow natural ash glaze. Mingei.
Japan, 18th/19th century.

Height 7.5 inches, width 6 inches at the neck. Ash glaze partially rubbed off at upper edge and at the body commensurate with holding and using, otherwise very good condition.

Heavy, cream colored stoneware oil plate (aburazara) shaped as a lotus leaf with curled up, irregular edge. Surface on ‘inside’ structured with cloth, decorated with geometric figures in iron brown glaze and covered with feldspar and typical Oribe green glaze.
Impressed maker’s mark in bottom: Jocho? tsukuru.
Japan, Seto region, Oribe, Meiji era, ca. 1900. Diam 7.25 x H 0.8 inches

2 old small chips and some frittings on rim, consistent with age and use