From our family collection of Japanese art from Living National Treasures: perfectly shaped Bizen Chawan from legendary Kaneshige Toyo (1896 - 1967)...

Here is magnificent example of the beauty of Raku ware, a pottery tradition born more than 400 years ago in the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto, from the collaboration between great tea master Sen Rikyu (1522-1591) and a potter named Chojiro ( - 1592), the forebear of the great Raku family of potters.

Sublime half cylinder shaped (Hanzutsu) tea bowl with a rounded brim, in the typical hand built style of the Raku family...

Mint Oni-Hagi masterpiece chawan with notched foot by star potter Seigan Yamane. This extraordinary tea bowl is covered by wonderful different shades of orange-red glaze on brown pottery. In my opinion it is the one of the most aesthetic chawans that he made. The seal of the artist is stamped on the bottom. We have a similar chawan with greenish glaze - same price.

Seigan Yamane was born in 1952, and started making Hagi ware in 1987...

Surely an extraordinary confluence of circumstances must have come into alignment in order to bring this remarkable composition into existence. Done in the Korai style - referring to the heavy influence from Korean forms and glazing - this exquisite late Momoyama/early Edo period (1590-1620) Karatsu-ware tea bowl is really rare.

Regular formed wan shaped, showing fine finger marks from throwing...

Here is a really rare example of Ko-Agano-yaki from the early Edo Period (1600-1630) with a fine Kintsugi gold repair: regular wan shaped Ko-Agano tea bowl, showing very fine slightfinger marks from throwing.

The foot ring has been cut with a potters knife on a hand wheel. A glaze of rice straw ash has been poured with a laddle, while the potter held the bowl at the unglazed foot. Its unglazed finger marks show a fine, little iron bearing clay of a brownish color...

This is one of the best works by modern avangarde artist Hiramatsu Ryoma and it demonstrates his creative imagination and challenges the traditional boundaries of what defines a tea bowl.

He surely needs no introduction. Ryoma is one of those once in 500 years' type of artists. He is a potter who goes beyond that usual appellation...

What a great Chawan! Wan shaped tea bowl made of light, refined and soft Mino clay, which contains a little iron oxide. The fastly but expertly thrown body inside and outside, with the exception of the bottom (including the finely thrown foot ring) is covered with a transparent ash glaze, which turned to yellow due to the iron oxide in the clay.

In 5 areas of the tea bowl are highlights in green copper oxide in the tradition of the Mino Ki-Seto...

Wonderful Tobe Chawan with a fantastic glaze, made by the great 3rd Rakuzan Tamai (1924-1990) about 50 years ago. Rakuzan Tamai was accepted several times at the Nitten Exhibition in Japan. His work is part of the imperial houshold as well.

In mid 18th century Tobe ware was started in Ehime prefecture, Japan, and in the end of the 19th century, there was an increase in the production of tableware for export to South East Asia. Nowadays such type of Chawan is hard to find...