Kohiki Matcha Bowl by Okicho Junji — Ash-Lavender Crawl Glaze, Wabi, Tomobako

A kohiki chawan by Okicho Junji — ash-lavender slip glaze with crawling iron-dark passages, fine crackle, wabi presence. Japanese kohiki tea bowl, chawan, white slip glaze, wabi-sabi pottery, signed tomobako, studio ceramic collector piece.

🔹 [ BASIC DETAILS ]
• Artist: Okicho Junji (大長俊二造)
• Form: Matcha chawan — generous rounded body, modest foot ring
• Technique: Kohiki (粉引) — white slip applied over dark clay body, then glaze-fired; natural iron crawl and fire marks
• Era: Contemporary (Showa–Heisei period)
• Origin: Japan
• Dimensions: Diameter approx. 11.3 cm, height approx. 8.2 cm
• Box: Original tomobako (wooden box) included, inscribed 粉引茶碗 俊二作
• Condition: Good; natural glaze variation, crazing and iron passages are inherent to the kohiki technique; no repairs

🔹 [ CULTURAL & ARTISTIC INSIGHT ]
Kohiki — the name means "powder pulled" — describes a technique born in Korea and adopted into the Momoyama tea aesthetic when Japanese tea masters recognized in its imperfections a deeper kind of beauty than perfection could offer. The process is deceptively simple: a dark clay body receives a coat of white slip, then glaze. But what fires out is never simple. The interaction between clay, slip, and glaze in the kiln produces surfaces that look like weathered stone, morning frost, or the interior of a seashell — surfaces where grey and pink and white arrive without argument and depart without explanation. On this bowl, the dark iron passages — charcoal, ash-purple — move across the surface like cloud shadows across a hillside. They are not decoration. They are the record of what fire decided.

🔹 [ DEEP-DIVE COMMENTARY ]
The three photographs of this bowl tell three different stories. In the exterior shot with box, the piece reads as austere — the grey-lavender surface textured with fine crackle, the dark passages distributed across the upper body with apparent randomness that reveals, on longer looking, a compositional intelligence. One large dark patch sits at approximately the two-thirds height, balanced by smaller passages elsewhere; the composition breathes.

The second exterior shot reveals the bowl's full form without the distraction of the box. The kohiki surface here shows its full color range — from ash-grey at the shoulder to soft blush-pink at the lower body — a gradient produced not by any deliberate application but by the kiln's temperature differential as heat flowed upward through the chamber. The fine crackle network, visible across the entire surface, is proof of the slip's movement against the clay as both cooled from firing temperature: a seismograph of the kiln event.

The rounded body sits on a small, modestly shaped foot ring. This proportional choice — a generous body resting on a contained foot — creates a subtle visual tension that is the defining quality of wabi chawan. The bowl seems at once settled and slightly precarious, like a stone placed by a stream.

For practitioners of chado, this is a bowl suited to any season but particularly resonant in autumn and winter — its palette of ash, lavender, and dark iron belongs to the mood of cold mornings and reduced light. The tall walls hold heat well. Okicho Junji's tomobako inscription confirms the work's authorship and ensures its place in any serious collection.

[ JAPANESE DESCRIPTION / 日本語解説 ]
🔹 【基本情報】
• 作者：大長俊二造
• 形状：抹茶碗、丸形、小高台
• 技法：粉引（暗色素地に白土化粧、釉薬仕上げ、自然な鉄流れ・火景あり）
• 時代：昭和〜平成期
• 産地：日本
• 寸法：直径約11.3cm、高さ約8.2cm
• 箱：共箱付き（「粉引茶碗 俊二作」墨書）
• 状態：良好。貫入・鉄景は粉引技法の自然な表情。補修なし

🔹 【文化・芸術的背景】
粉引は朝鮮半島に生まれ、桃山時代の茶人たちによってその不完全さの中に深い美を見出された技法である。暗色の素地に白土化粧を施し焼成することで生まれる景色は——灰色、薄桃、白が論争なく共存する表面——は風化した石や朝の霜を連想させる。大長俊二のこの茶碗の鉄景は装飾ではなく、炎が決定した記録である。

🔹 【コレクター向け解説】
肩から体部に流れる大きな鉄景と細かな貫入のネットワークが、侘びた構成美を作り上げている。丸みを帯びた胴部は手に温かく収まり、小さな高台との対比が視覚的な緊張感を生む。秋冬の茶席に特によく合う色調であり、共箱の墨書が作品の真正性を保証する。

🔹 [ SHIPPING & PACKAGING ]
• Dispatch: Within 1-6 business days
• Carrier: Japan Post EMS / UPS (with tracking)
• Packaging: Carefully wrapped with protective materials