Ohi Toshiro X Chozaemon Amber Glaze Chawan with Kiln Variation

Experience Authentic Japanese Tea Ceremony Ceramics with this Ohi Toshiro Amber Glaze Tea Bowl. This Japanese Chawan serves as an Ohi Ware Masterwork and Kanazawa Pottery Heritage, featuring Ame-yū Amber Glaze and Dramatic Kiln Variation—a must-have for any Tea Ceremony Collector seeking Urasenke Tradition and Cultural Heritage.

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🔹 [ BASIC DETAILS ]

• Artist: Ohi Toshiro / X Ohi Chozaemon (大樋年朗 / 十代大樋長左衛門, b. 1927)
• Type: Chawan (茶碗) — tea bowl
• Technique: Hand-built Ohi ware with ame-yū (飴釉) amber glaze
• Glaze: Amber glaze with extensive green-grey yōhen (窯変) kiln variation
• Approximate dimensions: Dia ~12 cm × H ~7.5 cm
• Condition: Excellent; no chips, cracks, or repairs
• Provenance: Comes with tomobako (signed wooden box), cloth wrapper, and pamphlet

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🔹 [ CULTURAL & ARTISTIC INSIGHT ]

Ohi ware traces its origin to 1666, when Raku IV (一入) guided the first Chozaemon in Kanazawa at the invitation of the Maeda clan. The lineage has continued unbroken for over 350 years, each generation inheriting the amber glaze recipe and the obligation to serve Urasenke tea practice. Ohi Toshiro, as the tenth-generation head, carried this weight with particular gravity — he was also a member of the Japan Art Academy and a figure of national cultural significance.

The amber glaze of Ohi ware is not a color choice. It is a material identity. The specific iron-bearing clay of Kanazawa, fired with a lead-flux glaze, produces that distinctive warm orange-amber that no other kiln replicates. On this bowl, the yōhen zone — where kiln atmosphere shifted from oxidation to reduction — creates a contrasting field of muted green and grey that interrupts the amber with geological force.

*"Three hundred and fifty years of the same glaze. Yet every bowl the kiln returns is a bowl no one has seen before."*

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🔹 [ DEEP-DIVE COMMENTARY ]

**Ame-yū: The Defining Glaze**
Ohi amber glaze achieves its characteristic depth through a lead-based flux over iron-rich local clay. The resulting surface is warm, slightly translucent, and alive with tonal variation even within a single pour. It absorbs and reflects light differently depending on the angle — a quality that tea practitioners have valued for centuries as the bowl moves from hand to hand during temae.

**Yōhen as Authorship Shared with Fire**
The green-grey kiln variation covering roughly half this bowl is not defect but dialogue. Yōhen occurs when volatile ash deposits and shifting kiln atmosphere alter the glaze chemistry in unplanned ways. The potter sets conditions; the kiln decides. In Ohi tradition, these marks are welcomed — they prove the bowl survived a conversation with forces beyond human control.

**Kanazawa and Urasenke**
Ohi ware exists because of tea. The Maeda lords of Kaga domain invited Raku lineage knowledge to Kanazawa specifically to produce tea utensils for Urasenke practice. This functional origin remains embedded in every Ohi bowl — the proportions, the weight in the hand, the lip profile are all calibrated for the gestures of chanoyu.

**Tenth-Generation Responsibility**
Ohi Toshiro assumed the Chozaemon name and with it, the obligation to honor inherited technique while allowing personal expression. His bowls tend toward bold, earthy forms — less refined than Raku ware, more muscular. The texture of this piece, heavily worked and unapologetic, reflects his approach: tradition held in a strong hand.

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🔹 [ 日本語解説 ]

【基本情報】
作家：大樋年朗（十代大樋長左衛門）（1927年生）／日本芸術院会員
種類：茶碗
技法：大樋焼・飴釉
産地：石川県金沢市
付属品：共箱・布・栞

【解説】
大樋焼は寛文六年（1666年）、楽家四代一入の指導のもと加賀藩前田家の招きにより初代長左衛門が金沢で開窯した茶陶です。以来350年以上、飴釉を家伝の技法として裏千家との深い結びつきの中で茶碗を作り続けてきました。十代長左衛門（大樋年朗）は日本芸術院会員として、大樋焼の伝統を守りながら力強く土味豊かな造形を追求しました。本作は飴釉の温かみある琥珀色に、窯変による緑灰色の景色が大胆に現れ、火と土の対話を鮮やかに伝える茶碗です。

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🔹 [ SHIPPING & PACKAGING ]

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

*Amber glaze, three and a half centuries old. The kiln still finds new ways to answer.*