{"product_id":"miura-chikusen-shonzui-chawan-kyo-ware-tea-bowl-sometsuke-blue-white-porcelain-japanese-tea-ceremony-signed-tomobako","title":"Miura Chikusen Shonzui Chawan Kyo Ware Tea Bowl Sometsuke Blue White Porcelain Japanese Tea Ceremony Signed Tomobako","description":"A Shonzui-style matcha chawan by Miura Chikusen, one of the most authoritative porcelain lineages of Kyoto. The body carries a densely woven composition of cobalt underglaze: rounded medallions enclosing the characters for longevity (寿) and good fortune (福), diamond lattice, honeycomb, and floral roundels, arranged with the disciplined rhythm that defines orthodox Shonzui writing. The brushwork is controlled, unhurried, and confident — the signature of a studio that has inherited this vocabulary across generations.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ BASIC DETAILS ]\u003cbr\u003e• Artist: Miura Chikusen\u003cbr\u003e• Origin: Kyoto, Japan\u003cbr\u003e• Material: Kyo ware porcelain with cobalt underglaze\u003cbr\u003e• Motif: Shonzui style (longevity and diamond patterns)\u003cbr\u003e• Era: 1980s\u003cbr\u003e• Box: Tomobako (artist's wooden presentation box)\u003cbr\u003e• Condition: Good, carefully inspected\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ Cultural \u0026amp; Artistic Insight ]\u003cbr\u003eInside, the rim is bordered with a lotus-petal frieze in cobalt, framing a quiet white interior that holds the whisked matcha like still water in a walled garden. A thin band of iron-brown glaze lines the rim (kuchibeni), a traditional finish that both protects and softens the edge. The footring is crisp, the glaze luminous, the porcelain bright — the kind of cleanness Kyo ware is trained to achieve. Comes with its original signed kiribako (paulownia storage box).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ CULTURAL \u0026amp; ARTISTIC INSIGHT ]\u003cbr\u003eShonzui (祥瑞) refers to a highly specific genre of blue-and-white porcelain that first arrived in Japan from Jingdezhen in the early seventeenth century, reportedly through the hand of a potter known in Japanese records as Gorodayu Shonzui. Tea masters of the late Momoyama and early Edo period received these wares as objects of almost scholarly devotion: their dense geometric grammar, their calligraphic restraint, their quiet blues — all of it matched the intellectual temper of chanoyu as it matured into a discipline of citation and lineage. To own a Shonzui piece was, in effect, to own a sentence from a shared classical text.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor Kyoto potters, copying Shonzui was never mere imitation. It was a form of translation — rendering a Chinese original into a Japanese vocabulary of proportion, weight, and tactile warmth. The Miura Chikusen studio, founded by the first Chikusen in the Meiji era and continuing through successive generations in Gojozaka, Kyoto, became one of the defining voices in this translation. Their Shonzui writing is recognized for its density of intention: every medallion is placed, every lattice counted, every character drawn with the steadiness of a hand that has copied the source a thousand times and no longer needs to look at it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ DEEP-DIVE COMMENTARY ]\u003cbr\u003eWhat separates a serious Shonzui chawan from a decorative one is the quality of the silence between the patterns. On this bowl, the composition is crowded — as Shonzui should be — yet nothing collides. The honeycomb reads as architecture, the longevity medallions as punctuation, the lattice as breath. The cobalt is applied in two weights: a confident outline and a softer fill, a technique that allows the blue to carry depth rather than flatness. Under tea-room light, this depth is what the eye settles on.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ Deep-Dive Commentary ]\u003cbr\u003eThe shape is a classic wan-nari (rounded well form), built for winter use and for matcha that wants to be held. The walls are thin enough to respect the hand, thick enough to hold heat. The interior is generous, the foot stable, the balance quietly correct — the kind of correctness that only reveals itself after the second bowl.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is offered here in excellent condition, housed in its signed tomobako. A bowl to be used, not only admired — the highest compliment a chawan can receive.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ DIMENSIONS ]\u003cbr\u003e• Height: approx. 7.7 cm (3.0 in)\u003cbr\u003e• Diameter: approx. 11.6 cm (4.6 in)\u003cbr\u003e• Condition: Excellent. No chips, cracks, or restoration noted. With original signed paulownia box.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ 日本語 ]\u003cbr\u003e京焼名門・三浦竹泉による祥瑞写茶碗。胴には染付で寿福字文の丸文、菱文、亀甲文、花唐草の地文が緻密に配され、正統な祥瑞写の文法を隙なく踏襲しています。筆致は終始穏やかで迷いがなく、文様の密度と余白の取り方に熟練の呼吸が宿ります。見込みは白く静かに整い、口縁には薄く口紅(鉄釉)が施され、抹茶を受けて一段と冴える作りです。高台はきりりと立ち、素地は明るく透きとおるような京焼の肌。共箱付・美品。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e祥瑞は明末の景徳鎮から日本へ渡り、茶人に特別な位置で迎えられた染付の一系譜です。幾何学の秩序と、書の如き筆の静けさ。これを京の言葉へ翻訳し続けたのが竹泉家の仕事であり、本作はその「写し」の本義 — 原典への敬意と、日本の手による再解釈 — を静かに体現しています。冬の一服を、確かな系譜の中で味わうための一碗です。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ 日本語解説 ]\u003cbr\u003e京焼の名門・三浦竹泉による祥瑞写の抹茶茶碗。胴には寿福字文の丸文、菱文、亀甲文、花唐草を染付で緻密に描き、正統な祥瑞の文法を隙なく踏襲した一碗です。見込みは白く静かに整い、口縁には薄く口紅(鉄釉)が施され、抹茶の緑を際立たせます。筆致は終始落ち着き、文様の密度と余白の呼吸に熟練の手が宿ります。高台はきりりと立ち、京焼らしい明るく透きとおる素地。共箱(桐箱)付・美品。冬の一服にふさわしい確かな仕事です。\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":61741736165746,"sku":"260406_a_2650","price":2001.0,"currency_code":"AED","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0960\/5680\/3698\/files\/m57810930839_1.jpg?v=1775485949","url":"https:\/\/checkout.themodernzenarchive.com\/products\/miura-chikusen-shonzui-chawan-kyo-ware-tea-bowl-sometsuke-blue-white-porcelain-japanese-tea-ceremony-signed-tomobako","provider":"The Modern Zen Archive","version":"1.0","type":"link"}