Experience Authentic Kyo-yaki Tea Ceremony Art with this Iro-e Chawan. This Wada Myozan creation serves as a Suma Akashi Landscape vessel and Overglaze Enamel Bowl, featuring Gold Cloud Painting and Pine Wave Scenery — a compelling Kyo-yaki Tea Bowl for any Japanese Tea Ceremony collector seeking a Signed Tomobako Box.
🔹 [ Basic Details ] • Artist: Wada Myozan (和田妙山), Myozan kiln • Technique: Iro-e (overglaze enamel) — gold, green, blue, red on cream body • Era: Contemporary (2000–2006) • Origin: Kyoto, Japan • Dimensions: Height approx. 8 cm, Rim diameter approx. 11.7 cm, Foot diameter approx. 4.8 cm • Box: Four-sided signed tomobako with pamphlet and yellow cloth • Condition: Excellent — enamel intact, vivid coloring throughout
🔹 [ Cultural & Artistic Insight ] Suma and Akashi are chapters from The Tale of Genji — and landscapes that have haunted Japanese poetry for a thousand years. Wada Myozan painted them onto this chawan in the Kyo-yaki tradition: gold clouds frame vignettes of moonlit sea, green pines lean toward cresting waves, and the quiet shore extends beyond the rim.
The back of the bowl opens to near-emptiness — pale cream broken only by small gold cloud medallions. This contrast between narrative richness and deliberate silence is a compositional decision rooted in centuries of Kyoto ceramic practice.
"The landscape wraps halfway, then stops — leaving the viewer to complete the scenery in their own hands."
🔹 [ Deep-Dive Commentary ] Kyo-yaki iro-e work represents the pinnacle of Japanese overglaze enamel painting. The technique requires multiple firings — the base body first, then successive enamel layers at progressively lower temperatures. Gold is applied last, demanding the most precise hand.
The Suma-Akashi motif carries literary weight that transcends decoration. Prince Genji's exile to Suma and his sojourn in Akashi form the emotional pivot of Murasaki Shikibu's novel — themes of loss, beauty found in solitude, and the persistence of refined sensibility in remote places. A tea bowl bearing this scenery transforms the tea gathering into a literary encounter.
The scalloped gold clouds (kumo-gata) that frame each scene are a classical compositional device from Yamato-e painting, here translated into ceramic enamel with confident brushwork.
🔹 [ SHIPPING & PACKAGING ] • Dispatch: Within 1-6 business days • Carrier: Japan Post EMS / UPS (with tracking) • Packaging: Carefully wrapped with protective materials
