A Tamba-yaki chawan by Ichino Shinsui of Shinsui kiln, where irabo glaze meets hakeme brush work in a single vessel.
The interior tells the story. Bold brush strokes sweep across the well — hakeme, applied with a coarse brush while the clay was still turning. The marks are decisive. Each stroke laid down once, without revision. Beneath and around them, an earthy irabo glaze pools in tones of sand, olive, and warm brown.
Tamba is one of Japan's Six Ancient Kilns, with an unbroken firing tradition spanning over eight centuries. The Ichino family stands at the center of that continuity. Generation after generation has worked this same clay, from this same mountain, in this same valley. Ichino Shinsui carries that accumulated knowledge — not as burden, but as foundation.
Irabo derives from Korean Yi dynasty precedent: a glaze that refuses uniformity. It gathers thick in recesses, thins on ridges, and shifts color depending on where the flame reached. Combined with hakeme, the surface becomes a dialogue between the potter's gesture and the kiln's response.
The proportions are contained — a bowl that sits close in the hands, intimate in scale, direct in its material honesty.
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