A tea bowl from Onta-yaki (小鹿田焼), a folk kiln deep in the mountains of Oita Prefecture in Kyushu — one of the last surviving mingei pottery traditions in Japan, where techniques have passed unbroken from father to son for over three hundred years.
The glaze here speaks directly: a deep brown-black ground interrupted by white and blue splashes that land with the confidence of things not designed but simply made. This is the mingei aesthetic in its most honest form — no pretension, no refinement for its own sake, only the visual record of clay, fire, and the hand that guided them.
Onta ware was championed by Yanagi Soetsu and Hamada Shoji as a living example of what anonymous craft could produce when the maker's ego stepped aside. To hold this bowl is to understand what they meant.
The form is deep and compact, suited to formal matcha as much as to quiet daily use. The signed tomobako is inscribed "小鹿田焼 茶".
Dimensions: approx. diameter 11 cm, height 7.8 cm Condition: Good vintage condition consistent with age and use. Includes: Artist's signed tomobako (original wooden box)
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