{"product_id":"minamiguchi-kansui-chawan-kenzan-style-kobai-red-plum-tea-bowl-signed-box-shiori","title":"Minamiguchi Kansui Chawan — Kenzan-style Kobai Red Plum Tea Bowl, Signed Box, Shiori","description":"Minamiguchi Kansui chawan, Kenzan-style red plum tea bowl, kobai motif, Japanese tea ceremony bowl, tomobako signed box, Ogata Kenzan tradition, plum blossom ceramics, Japanese pottery, shiori booklet.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e◼ BASIC DETAILS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eArtist: Minamiguchi Kansui (南口閑粋)\u003cbr\u003eTitle: Kenzan-utsushi Kobai Chawan (乾山写紅梅 茶碗)\u003cbr\u003eStyle: Kenzan-utsushi (after Ogata Kenzan)\u003cbr\u003eMeasurements: Diameter approx. 12 cm \/ 4.7 in, Height approx. 8 cm \/ 3.1 in (estimated from image)\u003cbr\u003eCondition: Good — no chips or cracks noted\u003cbr\u003eProvenance: Japan, private collection\u003cbr\u003eSet includes: Tomobako (signed artist box), shiori (artist booklet)\u003cbr\u003eSKU: 260228_a_2187\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e◼ CULTURAL INSIGHT\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOgata Kenzan (1663–1743) did not simply make pots. He made propositions — about where painting ends and ceramics begin, about whether the surface of a vessel can carry the same weight as a hanging scroll. His kobai (red plum) compositions, executed in bold brushwork on white-glazed grounds, became among the most recognizable images in the history of Japanese ceramics. For three hundred years, potters who love that proposition have worked in his tradition: not copying, but entering into a conversation across time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKobai — the early-flowering red plum — carries specific cultural weight in Japan. It blooms before the snow has fully withdrawn, before the ground has thawed, before most living things have decided it is safe to move. Its appearance on a tea bowl is an act of timing: it marks the precise moment between winter's continuity and spring's arrival, a moment the tea ceremony has always treated as sacred. The bowl does not show spring. It shows the breath before spring.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e◼ DEEP-DIVE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMinamiguchi Kansui approaches the Kenzan tradition with honesty rather than reverence. The kobai blossoms on this chawan are rendered in deep red with gold-accented outlines on a white glaze ground — stylized in the way Kenzan himself stylized, where botanical accuracy yields to expressive mark-making. Branches move with calligraphic economy. Blossoms are placed, not scattered. There is intention in the asymmetry.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe tomobako reads 乾山紅梅 茶碗 \/ 閑粋, confirming both the stylistic lineage and the artist's signature. The box is tied with a blue-gray silk cord — a detail that extends the aesthetic of restraint from the vessel itself to its housing. The shiori booklet accompanies as documentation of the work's context.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA bowl in the Kenzan tradition invites a particular kind of attention: not the admiration of technical perfection, but the recognition of authorship across distance — an artist in conversation with a master who lived three centuries before him, and the resulting object that holds both voices simultaneously.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e日本語解説\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e南口閑粋による乾山写紅梅茶碗。白釉地に赤い梅花を散らす乾山様式を踏まえながら、作者固有の筆致で絵付されています。梅の花弁には金の縁取りが施され、枝の動きは書の線に通じる簡潔さを持ちます。「素朴さ」は未熟さではなく、乾山写における解釈の姿勢です。共箱（箱書：乾山紅梅 茶碗 \/ 閑粋）・栞付。状態は良好で、欠け・ニュウはございません。\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","brand":"The Modern Zen Archive","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":61626886062450,"sku":"260228_a_2187","price":1407.0,"currency_code":"AED","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0960\/5680\/3698\/files\/m96728943150_1.jpg?v=1772291510","url":"https:\/\/checkout.themodernzenarchive.com\/products\/minamiguchi-kansui-chawan-kenzan-style-kobai-red-plum-tea-bowl-signed-box-shiori","provider":"The Modern Zen Archive","version":"1.0","type":"link"}