Agano Ware Tea Bowl - Copper Green Ash Glaze - 15th Gen Kumagai Koyo - Enshu Seven Kilns

𝗔𝗚𝗔𝗡𝗢 𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗧𝗘𝗔 𝗕𝗢𝗪𝗟 — 𝗘𝗡𝗦𝗛𝗨 𝗦𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗡 𝗞𝗜𝗟𝗡𝗦 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗔𝗚𝗘
A copper-green ash-glazed tea bowl (chawan) by 15th-generation Kumagai Koyo, heir to one of Kobori Enshu's Seven Kilns (Enshu Nana-gama). Agano ware carries over four centuries of unbroken kiln lineage from Fukuoka Prefecture, and this bowl distills that continuity into a single vessel — verdigris depth, iron memory, and the quiet authority of a tradition that has never paused.

𝗗𝗘𝗧𝗔𝗜𝗟𝗦
• Artist: 15th Generation Kumagai Koyo (熊谷紅陽)
• Kiln: Agano-yaki (上野焼), Fukuoka Prefecture
• Lineage: Enshu Seven Kilns (遠州七窯)
• Technique: Copper-green ash glaze (銅緑灰釉) on iron-rich stoneware
• Dimensions: Approx. D12cm (4.7") × H8.5cm (3.3")
• Box: Wooden storage box (kiribako) with navy fabric cord
• Includes: Artist provenance document (green paper insert detailing Agano-yaki history)
• Condition: Good — natural glaze variations and kiln marks consistent with the tradition. Minor surface irregularities are inherent to the copper-ash firing process.
• Marks: Two impressed seals on foot (spiral kiln mark + artist stamp)

𝗖𝗨𝗟𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗔𝗟 𝗜𝗡𝗦𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧
In the early Edo period, the great tea master Kobori Enshu — arbiter of refined taste (kirei-sabi) — selected seven kilns across Japan whose work embodied his aesthetic ideal. Agano was among them, alongside Takatori, Akahada, Asahi, Zeze, Shidoro, and Kosobe. These Seven Kilns (Enshu Nana-gama) became pillars of the tea world, and to this day their descendants carry that cultural weight forward. This bowl is not a reproduction of an old form. It is the living continuation of it.

𝗗𝗘𝗘𝗣-𝗗𝗜𝗩𝗘
The copper-green ash glaze is Agano ware's most distinctive voice. During firing, copper compounds in the glaze react with wood ash to produce this verdigris surface — a color that exists only through the kiln's unpredictable chemistry. The iron-rich clay beneath breaks through in scattered constellations of brown and grey, especially visible along the horizontal throwing rings that record the potter's hands in real time. The reverse face of this bowl reveals the full drama: grey earth and dark iron emerging beneath fractured turquoise, like weathered bronze exposed to centuries of coastal air. The interior spirals inward to a central whorl where turquoise and iron collide in quiet tension. Each side of this bowl tells a different story — one of stillness, one of erosion — and that asymmetry is precisely Agano's authorship.

*Where copper meets ash, time leaves its color on the clay.*

𝗝𝗔𝗣𝗔𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗘 𝗗𝗘𝗦𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗣𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 / 日本語説明
上野焼十五代熊谷紅陽による銅緑灰釉茶碗。遠州七窯の一つとして知られる上野焼は、小堀遠州が選んだ「綺麗さび」の美意識を四百年以上にわたり継承してきました。銅と木灰が窯の中で反応して生まれる緑青色の釉面に、鉄分を含む素地が褐色の景色となって浮かび上がります。ろくろの横筋が手の痕跡を静かに記録し、見込みの中心では釉薬が渦を描きます。表と裏で異なる表情を見せる一碗——これこそが上野焼の作家性です。木箱・由来書付。

🔹 [ SHIPPING & PACKAGING ]
• Dispatch: Within 1-6 business days
• Carrier: Japan Post EMS / UPS (with tracking)
• Packaging: Carefully wrapped with protective materials