A nezumi Shino (grey Shino) matcha bowl by Yamaguchi Jotetsu — its surface a field of quiet grey wash interrupted by an incised circular motif that emerges from the ground like a memory.
Nezumi Shino achieves its grey tone through a thicker application of iron-bearing slip beneath the Shino feldspar glaze — the iron and glaze interact during firing to produce the distinctive pewter-grey ground that gives this style its name (nezumi, mouse). Across this surface, a loosely incised circular form (likely a stylized fruit or abstract seal) is visible in warm pink-orange, where the underlying clay burns through. The bowl has a roughly squared mouth rim and substantial walls — this is a winter-weight vessel, made to hold warmth and resist motion. The full set includes the signed wooden box and cloth.
【 Basic Details 】 • Type: Chawan (matcha tea bowl) • Style: Nezumi Shino (鼠志野) • Artist: Yamaguchi Jotetsu (山口錠鉄) • Size: Diameter approx. 12 cm / Height approx. 7.5 cm • Condition: Good • Provenance: Signed wooden box (tomobako)
【 Cultural Insight 】 Nezumi Shino sits in a distinct aesthetic register from white Shino — where white Shino evokes snow and quiet, nezumi Shino evokes the overcast sky of late autumn, the colour of stone under dim light. In the tea room, it signals a mature restraint: no bright glazes, no painted decoration, only the surface that fire and clay negotiate between themselves. For practitioners of wabi-cha, the grey ground is considered one of the most direct expressions of mu — the quality of nothingness as presence.
【 Deep Dive 】 Yamaguchi Jotetsu is among the ceramicists who continued the Shino tradition in the Mino region into the contemporary period, working within the technical discipline of multi-step slip and glaze application. The incised motif on this bowl — visible as a pale circular line emerging from the iron grey — is applied before glazing, so the drawn mark is preserved beneath the glaze layer as a ghost image. This technique requires the potter to visualize the final surface at the raw clay stage, a planning process that cannot be corrected after firing.
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