{"product_id":"sometsuke-octagonal-futaoki-lid-rest-with-hisada-soya-box-omotesenke-tea-ceremony-utensil","title":"Sometsuke Octagonal Futaoki Lid Rest with Hisada Soya Box, Omotesenke Tea Ceremony Utensil","description":"Experience Authentic Japan Art with this Sometsuke Octagonal Futaoki. This Hand Painted Blue White Porcelain serves as an Omotesenke Tea Ceremony Utensil and Ko Sometsuke Style Lid Rest, featuring a Tea Master Signed Box by Hisada Soya and Karakusa Scroll Design—a must-have for any Japanese Antique Collector seeking a Cobalt Underglaze Futaoki and an Authentic Chado Tool with genuine cultural weight.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ BASIC DETAILS ]\u003cbr\u003e• Artist: Hisada Soya (Jingyu-sai \/ Hansho-an), tea master of the Omotesenke school\u003cbr\u003e• Technique: Sometsuke (cobalt-blue underglaze decoration) on white porcelain, ko-sometsuke revival style\u003cbr\u003e• Era: Showa to Heisei period (estimated mid-to-late 20th century)\u003cbr\u003e• Origin: Kyoto, Japan — Omotesenke lineage\u003cbr\u003e• Dimensions: Height approx. 4.2 cm, Diameter approx. 7 cm\u003cbr\u003e• Box: Original signed kiri-wood (paulownia) box (hakogaki) inscribed and signed by Hisada Soya\u003cbr\u003e• Condition: Excellent. Hand-painted decoration is crisp and well preserved, consistent with careful tea-house use\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ CULTURAL \u0026amp; ARTISTIC INSIGHT ]\u003cbr\u003eThe futaoki is one of the quietest yet most expressive utensils in the Japanese tea ceremony (chado). It exists for a single humble purpose—to rest the lid of the kettle or the bamboo ladle (hishaku)—and yet, precisely because its function is so modest, it has long been a vessel for the host's aesthetic discernment. This example takes the auspicious eight-sided (hakkaku) form, a geometry associated in East Asian thought with balance, completeness, and the eight directions of the compass.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHistorical Context: The sometsuke (blue-and-white) palette entered the Japanese tea world through ko-sometsuke—softly painted porcelains made in the kilns of Jingdezhen for the Japanese market in the early 17th century. Tea masters prized their unforced brushwork and gentle imperfections. This piece consciously revives that ko-sometsuke spirit: the karakusa (arabesque scroll) band around the rim and the loosely drawn floral sprays on the pedestal carry the same warm, slightly naive hand that the tea world has cherished for four centuries.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTechnique \u0026amp; Aesthetic: Cobalt oxide is painted directly onto the unfired clay and sealed beneath a clear glaze, so the blue blooms softly into the white ground. The radial lines fanning across the octagonal top, the small scroll motifs ringing the rim, and the chrysanthemum-and-peony panels on the foot are all rendered freehand, with the breathing irregularity that distinguishes a hand of feeling from a printed pattern.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePhilosophical Reflection: Eight blue ribs open like a paper umbrella toward a single still center—quiet geometry holding empty space.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ DEEP-DIVE COMMENTARY ]\u003cbr\u003eSometsuke defined. Sometsuke refers to underglaze cobalt-blue decoration on white porcelain—the Japanese expression of the blue-and-white tradition. Within tea taste, the most admired register is ko-sometsuke: the softly drawn export porcelains of late-Ming Jingdezhen, whose gentle imperfections and unstudied brushwork became a touchstone of wabi sensibility. This futaoki belongs to that revival lineage, prizing warmth and hand over mechanical precision.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow it is achieved. The potter forms the eight-sided body and pedestal, then a decorator paints cobalt pigment directly onto the bisque or raw surface. Because cobalt is unforgiving—it cannot be corrected once laid down—each line records the painter's confidence in a single pass. A transparent glaze is applied over the decoration and the piece is fired to high temperature, fusing pigment and glaze so the blue appears to float just beneath a glassy skin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhy collectors value it. The decisive element here is the hakogaki: the box is inscribed and signed by Hisada Soya, a tea master of the Omotesenke school, one of the three great Sen-family lineages descended from Sen no Rikyu. A tea-master signature does not merely authenticate—it confers selection. It means a recognized authority judged this object worthy of the tea room, placing it within a documented chain of connoisseurship that collectors regard as inseparable from the object itself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eForm and function. The octagonal silhouette and pedestal foot give the futaoki visual stability on the tray while keeping its profile low and discreet, as a supporting utensil should be. The recessed central well on the top receives the kettle lid or the ladle, the design quietly resolving practical need into refined form.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eContinuity today. Beyond the tea room, this piece reads beautifully as a scholar's-desk object, a stand for a small treasure, or simply as a meditation on restraint. It carries the entire ko-sometsuke aesthetic—blue on white, hand over machine, function transfigured into quiet beauty—into the contemporary home.\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\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ 日本語解説 ]\u003cbr\u003e【基本情報】\u003cbr\u003e• 作家: 久田宗也（尋牛斎・半床庵）／表千家流の茶人\u003cbr\u003e• 技法: 白磁に染付（呉須による釉下彩）、古染付風の作行き\u003cbr\u003e• 時代: 昭和〜平成期（20世紀中後期と推定）\u003cbr\u003e• 産地: 京都・表千家ゆかり\u003cbr\u003e• 寸法: 高さ 約4.2cm、直径 約7cm\u003cbr\u003e• 箱: 久田宗也による書付のある桐共箱\u003cbr\u003e• 状態: 良好。手描きの絵付けは鮮明に残り、丁寧に扱われた茶道具らしい風合い\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e【文化的・美的解説】\u003cbr\u003e蓋置は、茶道具のなかでもっとも控えめでありながら、もっとも亭主の見識が表れる道具のひとつです。釜の蓋や柄杓を置くという一点のためだけに存在し、その用が慎ましいからこそ、古来、亭主の美意識を託す器とされてきました。本作はめでたい八角（八方・円満）のかたちをとり、東洋において調和と完成を象徴する八の幾何を宿します。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e染付という青と白の様式は、十七世紀初頭、景徳鎮で日本向けに焼かれた古染付を通じて茶の世界に入りました。茶人たちはその気負いのない筆致と穏やかな「不完全の美」を愛しました。本作はその古染付の心を意識的に写し、口縁を巡る唐草文と高台の花文に、四百年茶人に親しまれてきた温かくやや素朴な手が息づいています。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e呉須は素地に直接描かれ、透明釉の下に封じられて、青が白地へとやわらかくにじみます。八角の天面に放射する線、口縁の小さな唐草、高台の菊・牡丹風の花文は、いずれも手描きの呼吸する不揃いを湛え、刷り物にはない情の手を伝えます。八本の青い筋が紙傘のように一点の静かな中心へと開く——余白を抱く静謐な幾何です。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e【ディープダイブ解説】\u003cbr\u003e染付とは、白磁に呉須で施す釉下の藍彩であり、青花（blue-and-white）の日本的展開です。茶の湯でもっとも尊ばれるのは古染付——明末・景徳鎮の柔らかな輸出磁器で、その穏やかな不完全と気負わぬ筆が侘びの基準となりました。本作はその系譜を継ぎ、機械的精度よりも手と温もりを尊びます。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e陶工が八角の身と高台を成形し、絵師が呉須を素地に直接描きます。呉須は一度引いた線を直せないため、各筆が一筆の確信を記録します。その上から透明釉を掛けて高温で焼成し、顔料と釉が融け合って、青がガラス質の肌のすぐ下に浮かびます。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e本作の決め手は書付です。箱は表千家の茶人・久田宗也の手により書付・署名され、千利休に連なる三千家の一を背景とします。家元・宗匠の書付は単なる真贋証明ではなく「選び」を意味し、しかるべき見識者がこの器を茶席に値すると認めたことを示します。それは器と不可分の鑑識の系譜に本作を位置づけます。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e八角の輪郭と高台は、盆上での安定を与えつつ、補助の道具らしく低く控えめな佇まいを保ちます。天面の窪みが釜の蓋や柄杓を受け、用の必要を洗練された形へと静かに昇華しています。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e茶室を離れても、本作は文房の置物として、また小さな宝を据える台として美しく、何より「青と白・手と機械・用の美への昇華」という古染付の美学そのものを、現代の住まいへと運びます。","brand":"The Modern Zen Archive","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":61954454421874,"sku":"260618_a_2998","price":2320.0,"currency_code":"AED","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0960\/5680\/3698\/files\/m56201725136_1.jpg?v=1781797304","url":"https:\/\/checkout.themodernzenarchive.com\/products\/sometsuke-octagonal-futaoki-lid-rest-with-hisada-soya-box-omotesenke-tea-ceremony-utensil","provider":"The Modern Zen Archive","version":"1.0","type":"link"}