{"product_id":"hagi-ware-matcha-bowl-by-nagaoka-sadao-gogawa-kiln-yamaguchi-signed-tomobako-japanese-tea-ceremony-chawan","title":"Hagi Ware Matcha Bowl by Nagaoka Sadao Gogawa Kiln Yamaguchi | Signed Tomobako | Japanese Tea Ceremony Chawan","description":"Hagi ware matcha bowl by Nagaoka Sadao of Gogawa-gama, Yamaguchi. Feldspathic white glaze drifts in thick, cratered layers across a warm reddish-brown clay body — classic Oni-hagi texture, with visible crawling and crackle that deepens with each use. Signed tomobako. One Raku, two Hagi: this is that second place. #hagichawan #hagiyaki #chawan #matchabowl #japaneseteaceremony #teabowl #茶碗 #萩焼 #抹茶碗\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ BASIC DETAILS ]\u003cbr\u003e• Artist: Nagaoka Sadao (永岡定夫), Gogawa-gama (郷川窯), Hagi, Yamaguchi Prefecture\u003cbr\u003e• Type: Matcha chawan (抹茶碗)\u003cbr\u003e• Dimensions: Approx. 11.5 cm diameter × 8.5 cm height\u003cbr\u003e• Glaze: White feldspathic glaze over iron-rich stoneware clay — characteristic Oni-hagi presentation\u003cbr\u003e• Condition: Bowl itself is pristine — no chips, cracks, or repairs. The wooden tomobako (signed storage box) shows minor age staining on the exterior surface, consistent with storage; the box functions fully and the brushwork inscription is clear.\u003cbr\u003e• Includes: Signed tomobako\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[ 日本語：基本情報 ]\u003cbr\u003e• 作家：永岡定夫（郷川窯、山口県萩市）\u003cbr\u003e• 種別：抹茶碗\u003cbr\u003e• サイズ：口径 約11.5cm／高さ 約8.5cm\u003cbr\u003e• 茶碗本体は美品。口縁・高台ともに無傷。共箱あり（箱外面に経年シミあり、機能上の問題なし）。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ CULTURAL \u0026amp; ARTISTIC INSIGHT ]\u003cbr\u003eHagi ware carries a lineage that does not begin in Japan. In 1604, Korean potters Yi Jak-gwang (李勺光) and Yi Gyong (李敬) were brought to the Mori clan domain in Yamaguchi under the patronage that followed the Korean campaigns of the late sixteenth century. They settled at what would become Hagi, and the clay they found there — soft, porous, iron-rich — became one of the defining materials of the Japanese tea world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe classical hierarchy of Japanese tea ceramics places Hagi in an unambiguous position: Ichi-raku, Ni-hagi, San-karatsu — first Raku, second Hagi, third Karatsu. For four centuries, this ranking has not shifted. Hagi holds second place not through volume or fame but through a particular quality that tea masters recognized and never forgot.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat quality has a name: Hagi-no-nanabake, the seven transformations. Hagi's porous clay body slowly absorbs tea liquor with each use. Over months and years, the pale feldspathic glaze shifts — deepening, warming, becoming suffused with color that belongs to no single firing but to the entire life of the bowl and its keeper. A Hagi bowl used daily for thirty years looks nothing like the bowl that left the kiln. It has become something else: a record, quiet and legible only to those who held it through the seasons.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis bowl — warm reddish-brown clay emerging through thick drifts of white glaze, the surface already showing the crawling crackle that invites tea to enter — is at the beginning of that journey.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[ 日本語：文化的背景 ]\u003cbr\u003e萩焼のはじまりは、日本ではない。1604年、毛利藩の庇護のもと、李朝の陶工・李勺光と李敬が現在の山口県萩市に移り住んだ。彼らが出会ったのは、柔らかく、多孔質で、鉄分豊富な土——それが萩焼の原点となった素材だった。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e茶の湯の世界には、「一楽二萩三唐津」という格付けがある。四百年間、この順列は変わっていない。萩焼が二位を占めるのは、産量でも著名さでもなく、茶人たちが見出し、忘れなかったある性質による。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eそれを「萩の七化け」と呼ぶ。萩の多孔質な素地は、使用を重ねるごとに茶を吸い込んでいく。年月をかけて、白い長石釉は変化する——深みを増し、温かみを帯び、窯変ではなくその碗を使い続けた時間の色へと育ってゆく。三十年使い込まれた萩茶碗は、窯から出た日とはまるで別物になる。それは静かな記録——持ち主とともに歩んだ季節の痕跡だ。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ DEEP-DIVE COMMENTARY ]\u003cbr\u003eThe geology of Hagi is inseparable from its aesthetic. The Mishima and Daido clay deposits around Yamaguchi yield a material that fires at relatively low temperatures — typically 1,200–1,250°C — producing a body that retains significant porosity. This is not a flaw corrected over generations. It is the defining feature that Hagi potters have worked with and around for four centuries, understanding that the clay's openness was the source of everything that made it valued.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe white feldspathic glaze applied to this bowl — derived from feldspar-rich stone ground to a slip and applied thickly — behaves differently on Hagi clay than it would on a denser stoneware. Because the body beneath it moves slightly with heat and retains moisture, the glaze develops fine crazing lines across its surface. These are not stress fractures in any harmful sense. They are the channels through which tea enters the bowl's interior life. Each use deposits a thin film of color into the matrix of the clay beneath the glaze. Over years, this accumulation becomes visible from the outside, working its way through the craze lines and glaze itself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNagaoka Sadao works within the tradition of Hagi's Oni-hagi (鬼萩) aesthetic — a rougher, more textural surface quality characterized by the thick, uneven fall of the white glaze over exposed reddish clay. Where some Hagi bowls present a more refined, even glaze surface, Oni-hagi embraces the drama of contrast: pale glaze crawling, pulling back, leaving wide expanses of warm iron-rich clay visible beneath. The bowl in these photographs shows exactly this quality — the glaze drifts in thick, cratered formations across the shoulder and upper body, receding toward the foot where the clay speaks more directly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn tea ceremony practice, this textural quality has a specific implication. Hagi is the bowl you choose when you intend to use it for a lifetime. Raku — glazed, smooth, non-porous — presents itself fully from the first. Hagi withholds. It gives itself slowly, over decades of practice and daily use. For this reason, serious practitioners often seek a Hagi chawan as a personal bowl: not for display, but for the long work of making tea a daily discipline. The bowl becomes a companion in that discipline rather than an object held at aesthetic distance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe tomobako accompanying this piece carries Nagaoka's own brushwork inscription — the artist's hand present in two registers simultaneously: the shaping of the clay and the naming of what was shaped. In the Japanese tea tradition, the tomobako is not merely packaging. It is the first document of the object's provenance, the potter's own attestation of what the piece is and where it came from. Minor staining on the box exterior is the natural evidence of its age and storage; the inscription within remains clear.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is a bowl for someone who understands that the best things in the tea room require time. Not patience as waiting — patience as participation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[ 日本語：詳細解説 ]\u003cbr\u003e萩の地質は、その美学と切り離せない。山口周辺の三嶋・大道の粘土は比較的低温（1,200〜1,250°C）で焼成され、焼き上がった素地は高い多孔性を保つ。これは時代を経て修正された欠点ではない。萩の陶工たちが四百年間、価値の源泉として理解し、育ててきた性質そのものだ。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eこの碗に施された白い長石釉は、長石質の石を砕いた泥漿を厚く掛けたもので、緻密な炻器とは異なる振る舞いをする。下の素地がわずかに動き、湿気を保持するため、釉面には細かな貫入が生じる。これは有害な亀裂ではない。茶が碗の内側の生に入り込む経路だ。使用を重ねるごとに茶の薄膜が素地の内部に堆積し、やがてその蓄積は外からも見えるようになる——貫入線や釉そのものを通して、じわじわと染み出してくる。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e永岡定夫は萩焼の「鬼萩」的表現の中で仕事をしている——白釉が厚く、不均一に垂れ落ち、赤みがかった素地が露出するテクスチャーが特徴だ。釉が肩や上胴部に厚くたまり、高台に向かうにつれて素地が直接語りかけてくる。写真のこの碗はまさにその対比の鮮やかさを見せている。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e茶の湯の文脈では、この質感には特別な意味がある。萩は、生涯使うつもりで選ぶ碗だ。楽——釉が施され、滑らかで、非多孔質——は最初から自分を開く。萩は留保する。数十年の稽古と日々の茶の時間をかけて、ゆっくりと自分を与えていく。真剣な稽古者が萩茶碗を「自分の碗」として求めるのはそのためだ。飾るためではなく、日常の稽古の長い営みの中で共にある器として。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e共箱には永岡自身の筆跡による銘が入る——土を形にした手と、それに名をつけた手、二つの次元で作家の筆が宿っている。箱外面の経年シミは保管の痕跡であり、内部の銘は明瞭に読み取れる。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e時間をかける価値を知る人のための碗。待つのではなく、参加するための忍耐——そういう茶の稽古のための器だ。\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":61748343243122,"sku":"260409_a_2710","price":488.0,"currency_code":"AED","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0960\/5680\/3698\/files\/m12033341250_1.jpg?v=1775738756","url":"https:\/\/checkout.themodernzenarchive.com\/products\/hagi-ware-matcha-bowl-by-nagaoka-sadao-gogawa-kiln-yamaguchi-signed-tomobako-japanese-tea-ceremony-chawan","provider":"The Modern Zen Archive","version":"1.0","type":"link"}