{"product_id":"ohi-ware-ame-glaze-bowl-by-ohi-chozaemon-kanazawa-kaga-raku-tradition-tomobako","title":"Ohi Ware Ame-Glaze Bowl by Ohi Chozaemon Kanazawa Kaga Raku Tradition Tomobako","description":"An Ohi ware ame-glaze bowl by Ohi Chozaemon, the hereditary kiln of Kanazawa and the Kaga domain's answer to the Raku tradition of Kyoto. A Japanese tea ceremony kashiki confection bowl in hand-formed amber-glazed earthenware, housed in its original paulownia tomobako with the artist's signature — a Tier 1 regional lineage piece carrying three and a half centuries of authorship and cultural weight.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ BASIC DETAILS ]\u003cbr\u003e• Artist: Ohi Chozaemon (大樋長左衛門) — hereditary name of the Ohi ware kiln, Kanazawa\u003cbr\u003e• Technique: Ame-gusuri (飴釉) — amber glaze hand-applied over hand-formed Raku-tradition earthenware\u003cbr\u003e• Form: Hachi (鉢) — bowl form suited to kashiki (confection service) or as a tea room display vessel\u003cbr\u003e• Origin: Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture — former Kaga domain, Japan\u003cbr\u003e• Era: Showa period, mid-to-late 20th century\u003cbr\u003e• Dimensions: Approx. 19 cm diameter × 8.5 cm height\u003cbr\u003e• Box: Original paulownia tomobako, inscribed 飴釉鉢 (Ame-yu Hachi) with the artist's signature and seal\u003cbr\u003e• Condition: Very good vintage condition with the patina appropriate to a carefully kept utensil\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ CULTURAL \u0026amp; ARTISTIC INSIGHT ]\u003cbr\u003eOhi ware was founded in 1666, when the first Ohi Chozaemon was invited from Kyoto to Kanazawa by Maeda Tsunanori, the fifth lord of the Kaga domain. He came as a student of Raku Ichinyu, the fourth-generation master of the Raku family, carrying with him the direct hand of the most intimate tea ceramic lineage in Japan. Settled in the village of Ohi on the outskirts of Kanazawa, he established a kiln that would serve the Maeda clan as its goyogama (御用窯) — a domain-appointed workshop standing in parallel to Kyoto's Raku family, producing tea utensils under the patronage of one of Japan's wealthiest feudal houses.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom this single transplanted root, the Ohi family developed their own signature: ame-gusuri, the amber glaze. Where Raku offered black and red, Ohi answered with translucent caramel and warm honey — a low-temperature lead glaze tinted with iron oxide that thins over raised throwing ridges and deepens into pools within the low relief, turning the bowl's own surface into the painted landscape (景色) that traditional Japanese aesthetics calls keshiki. The lineage has continued unbroken from the first Chozaemon to the present eleventh, with the tenth and eleventh generations designated as major cultural figures of Japanese ceramics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmber deepens like the honey of three centuries, carrying the domain's quiet insistence on continuity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ DEEP-DIVE COMMENTARY ]\u003cbr\u003eThe Kaga-Maeda clan was among the most culturally ambitious of the Edo period daimyo. Holding a domain so wealthy it was nicknamed Kaga Hyakumangoku (加賀百万石 — the million-koku domain), the Maeda lords deliberately cultivated Kanazawa as a northern capital of refinement, building an ecosystem of crafts that rivaled Kyoto and Edo. Kutani porcelain, Kaga maki-e lacquer, Kaga yuzen silk dyeing, Kanazawa gold leaf, and Ohi ware all grew from the same soil — the conviction that craft was a form of governance, that beauty was a civic obligation. To hold an Ohi bowl is to hold one of the named pillars of that ecosystem, the one that directly answered the tea room's demand for tactile authorship.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTechnically, ame-gusuri is a low-fired lead glaze carrying iron oxide as its coloring element. Unlike stoneware glazes matured at 1,200°C or higher, ame-gusuri belongs to the Raku family of soft earthenware fired at around 750–900°C, which is why Ohi bowls retain the quiet density and hand-warm tactility of Raku itself. The glaze, brushed or dipped over a hand-formed body, flows downward during firing and pools in any low area — between throwing ridges, at the inside of a curve, along the bottom of the rim. The result is that the bowl's landscape is drawn by the glaze itself, not by the painter. No two Ohi bowls can ever be identical, because the glaze is doing the composing. Look closely at this piece and the horizontal tool-marks on the outer wall remain legible beneath the amber; the glaze catches them and thickens, writing the record of the potter's hand into the finished surface.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the formal family tree of Japanese tea ceramics, Ohi ware sits as one of the clearest collateral branches of the Raku tradition: Raku Chojiro (1st) → ... → Raku Ichinyu (4th) → Ohi Chozaemon I (his direct student) → the unbroken Ohi line to the present eleventh generation. This is not a stylistic imitation of Raku; it is Raku's own hand moved north, allowed to develop regionally under different patronage. Collectors and curators who work seriously with Japanese tea ceramics place Ohi alongside the Raku branches when tracing the genealogy of tea bowls and tea-room utensils.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOhi amber-glazed bowls of this form are prized at the intersection of function and display. As kashiki (菓子器 — a confection bowl for wagashi served during chanoyu), the warmth of the amber glaze frames the colors of seasonal sweets — spring's sakuramochi pink, autumn's chestnut ochre — the way a picture frame is chosen to deepen the picture. Set on a tana shelf in the tea room or on a dark wooden surface in a collector's display, the same bowl functions as a standalone object: its profile is low and sculptural, its surface alive under any light source. The bowl enters both uses without contradiction, which is the signature of a properly resolved tea utensil. For collectors outside Japan, acquiring an Ohi piece is also an act of moving past the Kyoto-centric narrative of Japanese ceramics — an acknowledgement that the regional domain kilns carry equivalent cultural weight to the central ones.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn contemporary international collecting circles, the 10th and 11th Ohi Chozaemon have shown internationally, with works held in major museum collections, and the name itself has become one of the recognized hallmarks by which serious buyers of Japanese tea ceramics orient themselves. This bowl enters the hands of its next keeper with its tomobako intact — the signed paulownia box that is, in the Japanese system, inseparable from the object's identity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[ JAPANESE DESCRIPTION \/ 日本語解説 ]\u003cbr\u003e加賀藩御用窯・大樋焼の飴釉鉢、大樋長左衛門作。共箱には自筆の「飴釉鉢」の書付と落款が伴い、三百五十余年にわたる大樋家の系譜を背負う作品です。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e大樋焼は寛文六年（1666年）、加賀藩五代藩主・前田綱紀の招きにより、京都の楽家四代・一入のもとで学んだ初代大樋長左衛門が金沢に下り、郊外の大樋村に窯を開いたことに始まります。楽焼の直系でありながら、京都の黒釉・赤釉に対して加賀の飴釉をもって応えた——この独自の道筋こそが大樋焼の精神です。現在の十一代まで途切れることなく続き、十代・十一代長左衛門は日本陶芸界を代表する存在として位置づけられています。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e飴釉は鉄分を含む低火度の鉛釉で、楽焼と同じ柔らかな土味を持ちながら、焼成中に流れ、轆轤目や低い窪みに溜まり、高い部分では薄くなって、釉そのものが景色を描きます。この鉢の外側にも、指と箆が残した水平の跡が釉の下に明瞭に浮かび、作り手の手の記録が琥珀のなかに封じ込められています。手で包み込める寸法、低く落ち着いた腰のかたち、光を受けて深まる飴色——いずれも茶席の菓子器として、また床や棚の上の独立した景色として、静かに佇みます。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e加賀百万石の前田家は、九谷焼、加賀蒔絵、加賀友禅、金沢箔と並べて大樋焼を育て、工芸を藩の文化政策として扱いました。そのなかで大樋焼は、茶席という最も親密な空間を担った一脈であり、京都中心の陶磁史には収まりきらない地方性の重みを持っています。共箱付きで次の持ち主へと渡るこの一碗は、単なる器ではなく、加賀藩御庭焼の系譜そのものを静かに継承する証です。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e侘びの感覚でいえば、主張せず、けれども確かに在る——その佇まいを体現する作品です。\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":61748341571954,"sku":"260409_a_2704","price":791.0,"currency_code":"AED","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0960\/5680\/3698\/files\/m28546220670_1.jpg?v=1775738409","url":"https:\/\/checkout.themodernzenarchive.com\/products\/ohi-ware-ame-glaze-bowl-by-ohi-chozaemon-kanazawa-kaga-raku-tradition-tomobako","provider":"The Modern Zen Archive","version":"1.0","type":"link"}