Pussy Willow Nekoyanagi Tea Bowl - Kyo-yaki Spring Chawan with Polychrome Enamel and Box

Experience authentic Japanese tea culture with this Pussy Willow Nekoyanagi Tea Bowl. This Kyo-yaki Matcha Chawan serves as a Spring Season Ceramic Art and Polychrome Painted Stoneware, featuring Peach Pink Glaze Design and Botanical Enamel Motif—a must-have for any Art Collector seeking Seasonal Japanese Bowl and Wabi Sabi Tea Ware.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🔹 [ BASIC DETAILS ]

• Style: Kyo-yaki — polychrome overglaze on warm stoneware
• Technique: Iro-e (色絵) — multi-color enamel painting on peach-toned glaze
• Era: Contemporary (Heisei period)
• Origin: Kyoto, Japan
• Motif: Nekoyanagi (猫柳) — pussy willow, a late winter/early spring seasonal subject
• Dimensions: Diameter approx. 12 cm, Height approx. 8 cm (estimated from images)
• Box: Paulownia wood box inscribed "猫柳 茶碗" with cord
• Condition: Excellent

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🔹 [ CULTURAL & ARTISTIC INSIGHT ]

Pussy willow (nekoyanagi) is among the first signs of spring in the Japanese seasonal calendar. When the soft, silver-furred buds appear on bare branches along stream banks, they announce that winter's hold is loosening. In the tea world, a nekoyanagi bowl signals the transition from the deep winter months toward the awakening of spring — a moment of quiet anticipation that Japanese aesthetics has celebrated for centuries.

This bowl captures that transitional quality through its palette. The warm peach-pink base glaze — soft and inviting — evokes the first blush of warmth after months of cold. Against this ground, the pussy willow branches rise in dark purple and green, their buds rendered in white crackle enamel with burgundy and yellow accents. The scattered peach-colored spots across the surface suggest plum blossom petals drifting on a warm breeze — adding atmospheric depth to the botanical narrative.

*"Silver buds on bare branches — the first whisper of spring, softer than snow."*

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🔹 [ DEEP-DIVE COMMENTARY ]

**Seasonal Awareness in Tea**: The Japanese tea ceremony (chado) operates on an intimate relationship with the passing seasons. Tea masters select bowls, scrolls, flowers, and sweets that together create a unified expression of the current moment in nature's cycle. A nekoyanagi bowl belongs to late February through early March — the brief window when the catkins are most evocative and the seasonal shift is palpable.

**The Peach-Pink Palette**: This bowl's warm base color is achieved through controlled kiln atmosphere and iron content in the glaze. The result — neither pink nor beige but something between — creates a surface that feels inherently warm to the eye. This warmth is intentional: it complements the spring subject matter and creates a welcoming vessel for matcha's vivid green.

**Enamel Technique**: The multi-colored enamel work (iro-e) requires successive firings at decreasing temperatures. The white crackle buds, purple branches, green stems, and yellow accents each demand different enamel compositions that must mature at their respective temperatures without disturbing previously fired layers. The apparent simplicity of the design conceals technical complexity.

**Contemplative Design**: The composition leaves generous areas of undecorated glaze, allowing the warm base to breathe. This restraint follows the Japanese aesthetic principle of ma (間) — meaningful emptiness. The pussy willow branches emerge from the lower portion and reach upward, creating vertical energy that lifts the eye and evokes the plant's natural growth pattern.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🔹 [ 日本語解説 ]

【基本情報】
• 様式：京焼・色絵
• 技法：色絵（多色上絵付け）
• 時代：現代（平成）
• 産地：京都
• 画題：猫柳（晩冬〜早春）
• 寸法：口径約12cm、高さ約8cm（画像推定）
• 付属：共箱（紐付）
• 状態：良好

【解説】
温かみのある桃色地に猫柳を多色上絵で描いた京焼茶碗。白い花穂、紫の枝、緑の若芽、黄色のアクセントが早春の気配を伝える。地肌に散る桃色の斑点が梅花を連想させ、季節の移ろいに奥行きを与える。余白を活かした構図は「間」の美意識を体現し、抹茶の碧緑との調和も見事。二月末から三月にかけての茶席にふさわしい、春の訪れを告げる一碗。

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

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

*Silver buds on bare branches — the softest signal that winter is releasing its hold.*