{"product_id":"kenzan-utsushi-chawan-by-minamiguchi-kansui-daitoku-ji-abbots-box-inscription","title":"Kenzan-utsushi Chawan by Minamiguchi Kansui, Daitoku-ji Abbot's Box Inscription","description":"A chawan by Minamiguchi Kansui, worked in the Kenzan-utsushi manner — a Shino-toned body carrying a sunset scene where a red dragonfly hovers above wind-bent pampas grass. Kyoto, Japan. The bowl's own box carries an added inscription by Hashimoto Joshun, former abbot of Daitoku-ji, joining this autumn vessel to the temple's long relationship with the tea room.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ BASIC DETAILS ]\u003cbr\u003e• Artist: Minamiguchi Kansui (南口閑粋)\u003cbr\u003e• Technique: Kenzan-utsushi (乾山写) — homage to the Ogata Kenzan tradition; a Shino-toned ground carrying iron-oxide (aka-e) painted decoration\u003cbr\u003e• Era: Showa period, inferred from the box inscription and consignment record; exact date not confirmed\u003cbr\u003e• Origin: Kyoto, Japan\u003cbr\u003e• Dimensions: Diameter approx. 12.4 cm, Height approx. 7.6 cm\u003cbr\u003e• Box: Original wooden box (tomobako), bearing an added inscription (hakogaki) by Hashimoto Joshun, former abbot of Daitoku-ji\u003cbr\u003e• Condition: Good — bowl and box reported sound in the consignment record, consistent with age and prior use in the tea room\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ CULTURAL \u0026amp; ARTISTIC INSIGHT ]\u003cbr\u003eHistorical Context: Kenzan-utsushi is not imitation but continuation — a lineage of potters working after Ogata Kenzan (1663–1743), who first folded calligraphy, poetry, and glaze into a single ceramic surface and gave Kyoto ware a literary voice it had not had before. An utsushi piece measures itself against that inheritance rather than copying it outright, and the maker's task is to carry the spirit of the reference forward while leaving a hand of their own in the clay.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTechnique \u0026amp; Aesthetic: The body sits in a Shino-toned field, warm and slightly uneven, over which a single red dragonfly is painted in iron-oxide pigment, suspended above a stand of pampas grass bending in an implied wind. The pairing draws on the autumn-evening imagery of the Man'yōshū, Japan's oldest poetry anthology, where dragonfly and susuki mark the same turning of the season — light going low, insects still moving before the cold. The painting is spare rather than decorative; the ground is left to carry as much weight as the brushwork.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePhilosophical Reflection: A held breath before the light goes — the dragonfly does not yet know the grass has already begun to fade.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ DEEP-DIVE COMMENTARY ]\u003cbr\u003eKenzan-utsushi work is judged first by its restraint. Ogata Kenzan's own bowls favored a loose, almost sketch-like hand over a soft glaze ground, and later potters working in his name are measured by whether they understand that looseness as discipline rather than simply borrow his motifs. This bowl's dragonfly-and-susuki painting sits inside that lineage — a seasonal reference handled with a light touch rather than filled in.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Shino-style ground is built by controlling a feldspathic glaze over a slower firing, so the surface keeps a soft, slightly pooled texture rather than a hard gloss; the iron-oxide decoration is then painted either under or through that ground, so the red stays warm rather than sharp against the body. Achieving this balance — glaze soft enough to hold texture, painting clean enough to read as a dragonfly and not a smear — is where the maker's hand is tested.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat gives this bowl its added weight for a collector is the box. A tomobako is common enough; a box carrying a later hakogaki from a named Daitoku-ji abbot is not. Daitoku-ji's line of tea-connected clergy has authenticated and inscribed utensils for centuries, and an abbot's brush on a box is a form of institutional witness — Hashimoto Joshun's inscription here ties a Kyoto Kenzan-utsushi bowl directly to that temple tradition, the point where ceramic craft and tea-room authority meet on the same piece of wood.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe form continues to be worked today by potters across Kyoto and beyond, each utsushi piece a small negotiation between reverence for Kenzan and the maker's own decade. This bowl, carrying both a maker's brush and a monk's, sits as one instance of that ongoing conversation — modest in scale, specific in reference, and legible to anyone who sits with it through a season of tea.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ SHIPPING \u0026amp; PACKAGING ]\u003cbr\u003e• Dispatch: Within 1-6 business days\u003cbr\u003e• Carrier: Japan Post EMS \/ UPS \/ FedEx (with tracking)\u003cbr\u003e• Packaging: Carefully wrapped with protective materials\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ 日本語解説 ]\u003cbr\u003e南口閑粋による茶碗、乾山写の手による一椀。志野風の地に、赤蜻蛉が薄の穂の上に浮かぶ夕照の景が描かれている。京都。共箱には、前大徳寺住持・橋本紹尚による箱書が添えられ、この秋の器を茶室と寺の長い関わりへとつないでいる。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ Basic Details ／ 基本情報 ]\u003cbr\u003e• 作家：南口閑粋\u003cbr\u003e• 技法：乾山写――尾形乾山の系譜への敬意を込めた、志野風地に鉄絵（赤絵）を施した仕上げ\u003cbr\u003e• 年代：箱書及び入荷記録から推定される昭和期。正確な制作年は未確認\u003cbr\u003e• 産地：京都\u003cbr\u003e• 寸法：径約12.4センチ、高さ約7.6センチ\u003cbr\u003e• 箱：共箱（木箱）、前大徳寺住持・橋本紹尚による箱書付\u003cbr\u003e• 状態：良好――入荷記録上、経年と使用に相応の状態で、箱・碗ともに健全と伝えられている\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ Cultural \u0026amp; Artistic Insight ／ 文化的背景と芸術的考察 ]\u003cbr\u003e歴史的背景：乾山写は模倣ではなく継承である。尾形乾山（1663–1743）は書・詩・釉薬を一つの陶の面に折り込み、京焼にそれまでなかった文学的な声を与えた。乾山写の作は、その系譜を写すのではなく、その系譜に対して自らの手を差し出す試みである。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e技法と美意識：地は志野風にやや不揃いな温かみを湛え、その上に赤蜻蛉が一匹、鉄絵によって薄の穂の上に浮かぶように描かれている。蜻蛉と薄の組み合わせは、日本最古の歌集『万葉集』に見られる秋の夕景の情緒に通じ、光が傾き、虫たちがまだ寒さの前を動いている一瞬を留める。装飾というより、地の余白そのものが意味を担っている。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e哲学的省察：光が消える前の、ひと呼吸――蜻蛉はまだ、薄がすでに枯れ始めていることを知らない。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ Deep-Dive Commentary ／ 上級者向け解説 ]\u003cbr\u003e乾山写の器は、まず「抑制」によって評価される。尾形乾山自身の碗は、柔らかな釉地の上にゆるやかな、ほとんど素描のような筆致を好んだ。後世の作家たちがその名を借りて写す時、そのゆるやかさを単なる意匠の借用ではなく、規律として理解しているかどうかが問われる。この碗の蜻蛉と薄の絵付けも、埋め尽くすのではなく、軽い筆致でその系譜のうちに置かれている。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e志野風の地は、長石釉を緩やかな焼成で制御することで生まれ、硬い艶ではなく、柔らかくやや溜まりのある質感を保つ。鉄絵の装飾はその地の上、あるいは地を通して描かれ、赤みが地に対して鋭くならず、温かく響くようにする。釉が質感を保つほど柔らかく、絵付けが蜻蛉として読み取れるほど明瞭であること――その均衡にこそ、作り手の力量が試される。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eこの碗にコレクターにとっての重みを加えているのは箱である。共箱そのものは珍しくないが、大徳寺の住持による後年の箱書が添えられた箱は稀である。大徳寺の茶に連なる僧侶の系譜は、幾世紀にもわたり茶道具に箱書を与え、その真正性を証してきた。橋本紹尚による箱書は、京都・乾山写の一碗を、その寺の伝統へと直接に結びつける――陶芸の技と茶室の権威が、一枚の木箱の上で出会う地点である。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eこの形式は今日も京都をはじめ各地の作家によって手がけられ続けており、乾山への敬意と作り手自身の時代性との間の、小さな対話が続いている。作家の筆と僧の筆をともに宿すこの碗も、その対話の一齣として、季節を通して茶と共にある者に静かに語りかける。","brand":"The Modern Zen Archive","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":62028084052338,"sku":"260708_a_3109","price":823.0,"currency_code":"AED","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0960\/5680\/3698\/files\/m45322785280_1.jpg?v=1783529370","url":"https:\/\/checkout.themodernzenarchive.com\/products\/kenzan-utsushi-chawan-by-minamiguchi-kansui-daitoku-ji-abbots-box-inscription","provider":"The Modern Zen Archive","version":"1.0","type":"link"}