{"product_id":"autumn-grass-iro-e-hira-chawan-by-kazan-kikyo-bellflower-overglaze-enamel-flat-matcha-bowl-signed-tomobako","title":"Autumn Grass Iro-e Hira Chawan by Kazan — Kikyo Bellflower Overglaze Enamel Flat Matcha Bowl, Signed Tomobako","description":"Experience Authentic Japan Art with this Autumn Grass Iro-e Tea Bowl. This Japanese Matcha Bowl serves as a Flat Hira Chawan and Summer Tea Ceremony Bowl, featuring Kikyo Bellflower Overglaze Enamel and Signed Tomobako Box—a must-have for any Art Collector seeking a Hand-Painted Japanese Ceramic with Autumn Motif Pottery and Wabi-Sabi Aesthetic Chawan.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ BASIC DETAILS ]\u003cbr\u003e• Artist: Kazan (佳山) — signed on tomobako lid\u003cbr\u003e• Technique: Iro-e (overglaze polychrome enamel) on crackle-glazed stoneware\u003cbr\u003e• Era: Late Showa to Heisei period (estimated 1980s–2000s)\u003cbr\u003e• Origin: Japan (style associated with Kyoto\/Kyo-yaki polychrome tradition)\u003cbr\u003e• Dimensions: Diameter approx. 14.5 cm, Height approx. 6 cm\u003cbr\u003e• Box: Original signed wooden tomobako inscribed \"秋草色絵 茶碗\" (Autumn Grass Iro-e Tea Bowl)\u003cbr\u003e• Condition: Excellent — no chips, cracks, or repairs; decoration fully intact\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ CULTURAL \u0026amp; ARTISTIC INSIGHT ]\u003cbr\u003eThe flat, wide profile of this hira-chawan (平茶碗) is no accident of form. In the Japanese tea ceremony, the shallow bowl is the vessel of summer — its open shape allows the whipped matcha to cool gently, inviting the hand to slow, the gaze to settle, and the season to be acknowledged before the first sip. To hold a hira-chawan is to hold summer itself at its turning point.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKazan's exterior decoration presents a vignette of akikusa — the collective term for the seven grasses of autumn (aki no nanakusa). White kikyo (桔梗, platycodon\/bellflower) blooms rendered in white slip with cobalt-blue outline rise from a tangle of teal-green leaves and golden-brown seed pods, while a single purple bud closes the composition at right. The brushwork is naturalistic yet distilled — each petal, each leaf placed with the economy of a haiku poet who knows that what is left out speaks as loudly as what is included.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe ground glaze is a soft ash-gray warmed with faint pink blush, carrying a fine, all-over crackle (kairagi) that catches light like morning frost on stone. The terracotta-pink kodai (foot ring) anchors the piece with an earthy frankness that balances the delicacy of the painted surface. The interior is a study in restraint: a pale celadon-gray field with sparsely brushed arc-grass motifs in cobalt and iron-brown, punctuated by tiny white dot accents evoking dew on autumn grass. The asymmetry of these interior marks is entirely intentional — the bowl invites the eye to linger, not to conclude.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePoetic line: \"White bells open in the cooling air — the season tips, and the tea bowl holds the moment before it turns.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ DEEP-DIVE COMMENTARY ]\u003cbr\u003eIro-e (色絵), meaning \"colored pictures,\" refers to the tradition of applying low-fired overglaze enamel colors to a ceramic surface after the initial high-fire glazing. The technique was introduced to Japan in the early Edo period — most influentially through the Kakiemon and Nabeshima kilns of Kyushu — and was later embraced and transformed by Kyoto potters working in the Kyo-yaki (京焼) tradition. What distinguishes Kyo-yaki iro-e from its Arita counterparts is its affinity for muted, literary grounds: the pale ash and crackle glazes associated with Kyoto ceramics provide a quieter stage than the white porcelain of Imari, allowing the painted motifs to read as brushwork rather than as pattern.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKazan's hira-chawan sits clearly within this Kyoto-adjacent polychrome tradition. The crackle ground — achieved through a deliberate mismatch in the thermal expansion rates of clay body and glaze — is a hallmark of the wabi-influenced Kyoto aesthetic, simultaneously evoking aged Chinese ceramics and the natural weathering of stone. The overglaze enamels are applied with a painter's hand rather than a decorator's: the white kikyo petals are built up with white slip before the cobalt outlines are drawn, giving them a slight dimensionality, while the teal and golden-brown leaves are rendered in a single confident brushstroke each, with no hesitation marks.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe akikusa motif — autumn grasses and flowers — carries one of the deepest seasonal resonances in Japanese aesthetics. The kikyo in particular is a flower of poignant ambivalence: it blooms at the height of summer but announces the coming of autumn, and its name appears in the Man'yoshu poetry anthology as a symbol of graceful impermanence. In the tea ceremony context, a bowl decorated with kikyo is used in the period known as nagori (名残), the \"lingering\" season of late summer into early autumn, when the tea room acknowledges beauty at the moment of its passing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor the collector, this piece offers a rare combination: the accessibility of a well-crafted Showa-Heisei iro-e bowl at a practical price point, paired with the completeness of an original signed tomobako — a provenance marker that both attests to the work's authenticity and allows the piece to be presented ceremonially. The original box, inscribed in the artist's hand, is itself a document of intention. Kazan is not a name found in the major public encyclopedias of Japanese ceramics, but the quality of execution here — the assurance of the brushwork, the sophistication of the crackle ground, the careful balance of exterior abundance and interior restraint — indicates a craftsperson of genuine training and sensibility, working within a living tradition.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ 日本語解説 ]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e【基本情報】\u003cbr\u003e• 作家：佳山（共箱蓋表に署名・箱書き）\u003cbr\u003e• 技法：色絵（オーバーグレーズ多色絵付け）、貫入釉の炻器\u003cbr\u003e• 年代：昭和後期〜平成（推定1980年代〜2000年代）\u003cbr\u003e• 産地・流派：日本（京焼の多色絵付け伝統に近接するスタイル）\u003cbr\u003e• 寸法：口径 約14.5cm、高さ 約6cm\u003cbr\u003e• 箱：共箱（蓋表に「秋草色絵 茶碗」と墨書）\u003cbr\u003e• 状態：優良——ヒビ・カケ・金継ぎ等なし、絵付け完全\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e【文化・芸術的解説】\u003cbr\u003e平茶碗という形は、夏の茶事のために生まれた器です。広く浅い形が点てたばかりの抹茶の熱を逃がし、手のひらに収まる感触が静かな対話を促します。口縁から内底へと広がるその空間は、夏の終わりを味わうためにあるかのようです。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e佳山の手による外側の意匠は、秋草の小品です。白い桔梗の花びらは呉須の縁取りで引き締められ、青緑の葉と金茶色の実が絡み合い、右端には紫の蕾がひとつ、季節の余韻を添えます。筆致は確かで迷いがなく、余白の取り方に俳句的な節制が感じられます。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e素地は灰白に淡い薄紅の温かみを帯び、全面に均一な貫入が走ります。その細かな亀甲の表情は、石に宿る霜のように光を拡散させ、古陶の雅趣を今日の器に宿します。高台は素地の赤みが率直に現れ、上絵の繊細さを大地でしっかりと支えます。内底は一転して静謐——灰青の釉地に、弧を描く草の一筆と点々とした白い露の意匠のみ。見込みの非対称な運筆は意図的なものであり、見る者の視線をそこに留まらせます。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e詩的一文：「白い鐘形の花びらが、冷えていく空気の中に開く——季節が傾き、茶碗はその転換の瞬間を静かに受け止めている。」\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e【深掘り解説】\u003cbr\u003e色絵とは、本焼き後の器面に低温の上絵具を重ね、再び炉に入れて焼成する多色絵付けの技法です。江戸初期に有田・柿右衛門窯や鍋島藩窯で洗練され、後に京焼の作家たちによって独自の文学的趣へと変容しました。有田の白磁に映える色絵とは異なり、京焼の色絵は多くの場合、灰釉や貫入釉の静かな地の上に展開され、文様より筆跡そのものが語る世界を志向します。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e佳山のこの平茶碗は、その京焼的な色絵の精神を体現しています。貫入は釉薬と素地の熱膨張率の差異を意図的に利用した技術的な結果であり、茶道具における「見立て」の美学——中国の古陶を思わせながら、自然の経時変化をも呼び起こす——と深く結びついています。白い花びらには白泥を盛り、その上から呉須で輪郭を描くことで微かな立体感が生まれ、葉と実は各々一筆で勢いよく描かれています。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e秋草の意匠、とりわけ桔梗は、日本の美学において特別な位置を占めます。夏の盛りに咲きながら秋の到来を告げる桔梗は、『万葉集』以来、優雅な無常の象徴として詠まれてきました。茶道においては、晩夏から初秋にかけての「名残」の季節を映す器として珍重され、その使用そのものが時間への感受性を表明します。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eコレクターの視点から見ると、本作は昭和〜平成の優れた色絵茶碗として、原箱（共箱）の完全な揃いという希少な要件を満たしています。作家自筆の箱書きは真作の証明であるとともに、茶席での拝見において器の来歴を語る文書でもあります。佳山という名は著名窯のカタログには登場しませんが、筆の確かさ、貫入地の精度、外と内の構成バランスは、確かな修練を積んだ作家の仕事を物語っています。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ SHIPPING \u0026amp; PACKAGING ]\u003cbr\u003e• Dispatch: Within 1-6 business days\u003cbr\u003e• Carrier: Japan Post EMS \/ UPS (with tracking)\u003cbr\u003e• Packaging: Carefully wrapped with protective materials","brand":"The Modern Zen Archive","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":61954412183922,"sku":"260618_a_2977","price":670.0,"currency_code":"AED","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0960\/5680\/3698\/files\/m69023079903_1.jpg?v=1781796093","url":"https:\/\/checkout.themodernzenarchive.com\/products\/autumn-grass-iro-e-hira-chawan-by-kazan-kikyo-bellflower-overglaze-enamel-flat-matcha-bowl-signed-tomobako","provider":"The Modern Zen Archive","version":"1.0","type":"link"}