{"product_id":"hagi-ware-unkaku-tea-bowl-by-yamazaki-takeo-crane-and-cloud-relief-chawan-with-stamped-flowers","title":"Hagi Ware Unkaku Tea Bowl by Yamazaki Takeo — Crane and Cloud Relief Chawan with Stamped Flowers","description":"Experience authentic Japanese ceramics with this Hagi Ware Unkaku Tea Bowl by Yamazaki Takeo. This Crane and Cloud Relief Chawan serves as a Yamaguchi Prefecture Ceramic and Hagi Ware Matcha Bowl, featuring Unkaku Crane Cloud Design and Stamped Flower Band — a must-have for any Japanese Art Collector seeking Zen Tea Ceremony Bowl and Traditional Hagi Pottery.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ BASIC DETAILS ]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• Artist: Yamazaki Takeo \/ art name Shōun (山崎武男 \/ 祥雲)\u003cbr\u003e• Technique: Hagi ware with relief decoration (ukibori), stamped flower band, and painted crane motif\u003cbr\u003e• Motif: Unkaku (雲鶴) — cranes among auspicious clouds\u003cbr\u003e• Era: Contemporary (Heisei period)\u003cbr\u003e• Origin: Hagi, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan\u003cbr\u003e• Dimensions: Approx. 11.0 cm diameter × 8.0 cm height (4.3\" × 3.1\")\u003cbr\u003e• Box: Tomobako (artist-signed wooden box) with red seal\u003cbr\u003e• Condition: Excellent — no chips, cracks, or repairs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ CULTURAL \u0026amp; ARTISTIC INSIGHT ]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCranes fly through clouds on this Hagi ware bowl — not painted in bold color but traced in subtle relief against a pale ground that shifts between cream, pink, and soft blue-green. Yamazaki Takeo, working under the art name Shōun (\"Auspicious Cloud\"), brings the unkaku motif to Hagi ware's characteristically soft surface with a technique that rewards close looking.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe clouds are carved in low relief (ukibori), their swirling forms raised just enough to catch the light. Among them, cranes are painted in grey-dark pigment — slender bodies, long beaks, wings suggested rather than detailed. A band of stamped chrysanthemum-like flowers circles the upper body between incised horizontal lines, adding geometric rhythm to the organic cloud-and-crane scene below.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Hagi glaze wraps everything in its distinctive warmth. Pale cream with blushes of pink and green, slightly translucent, softening the carved edges and giving the entire surface a dreamlike quality. This is not a bowl that announces itself — it reveals itself gradually, cloud by cloud, crane by crane.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e*\"The crane needs no color — it carries its own light through the clouds.\"*\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ DEEP-DIVE COMMENTARY ]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e**The Unkaku (雲鶴) Tradition**: Unkaku — cranes among clouds — is one of Japan's most enduring auspicious motifs, originating in Chinese art and adopted into Japanese decorative vocabulary during the Heian period. The combination represents celestial transcendence: cranes were believed to live a thousand years and to carry immortals between heaven and earth. In tea culture, unkaku motifs are appropriate for New Year's gatherings and celebrations, carrying wishes for longevity and good fortune.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e**Yamazaki Takeo \/ Shōun**: The art name Shōun (祥雲, \"Auspicious Cloud\") reveals the artist's deep affinity with the subject of this bowl. Yamazaki works in the Hagi tradition, using the region's characteristic Daido clay and ash-based glazes, but adds a distinctive decorative vocabulary through relief carving, stamping, and painted motifs. This layered approach — combining multiple surface techniques on a single piece — gives his work a textural richness unusual in Hagi ware.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e**The Stamped Flower Band**: The row of small stamped flowers near the rim recalls Mishima (三島) technique — the Korean-influenced decoration of stamped patterns filled with contrasting slip. Yamazaki's version stays within the Hagi glaze palette, allowing the stamped forms to emerge through the translucent glaze as subtle texture rather than contrasting pattern. This restraint maintains the Hagi aesthetic of quiet, unified surfaces.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e**Hagi Ware's Seven Transformations**: Hagi ware is renowned for its \"nana-bake\" (七化け, seven transformations) — the way its porous body and crazing glaze absorb tea over years of use, gradually deepening in color and character. This bowl's pale surface is, in a sense, a beginning — a blank page waiting for the patina that decades of tea practice will inscribe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ 日本語解説 ]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e【基本情報】\u003cbr\u003e• 作家：山崎武男（号：祥雲）\u003cbr\u003e• 技法：萩焼・浮彫・印花・絵付け\u003cbr\u003e• 意匠：雲鶴（うんかく）\u003cbr\u003e• 時代：現代（平成）\u003cbr\u003e• 産地：山口県萩\u003cbr\u003e• 寸法：口径約11.0cm × 高さ約8.0cm\u003cbr\u003e• 付属：共箱（印あり）\u003cbr\u003e• 状態：良好（割れ・欠けなし）\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e【解説】\u003cbr\u003e萩焼の柔らかな釉肌に、雲鶴の景を浮彫と絵付けで表した茶碗。祥雲の号を持つ山崎武男が、瑞雲の渦巻きを低浮彫りで立体的に表現し、その間を灰色の鶴が飛びます。口縁近くには印花の小菊を帯状に配し、幾何学的なリズムと有機的な雲鶴の景が対比を成します。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eクリームから淡い桃色、青緑へと移ろう萩釉が、すべてを夢幻的に包み込む。萩焼の「七化け」——使い込むほどに変化する肌合いは、この茶碗をこれからの歳月への招待状にしています。新年や慶事の茶会に、長寿と吉祥を願う一碗です。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━\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\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e*Through pale clouds the crane descends — not to land, but to remind the earth that flight is also a form of stillness.*","brand":"The Modern Zen Archive","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":61584938762610,"sku":"251028_a_1340","price":993.0,"currency_code":"AED","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0960\/5680\/3698\/files\/m45457955317_1.jpg?v=1770777269","url":"https:\/\/checkout.themodernzenarchive.com\/products\/hagi-ware-unkaku-tea-bowl-by-yamazaki-takeo-crane-and-cloud-relief-chawan-with-stamped-flowers","provider":"The Modern Zen Archive","version":"1.0","type":"link"}