A Shigaraki chawan by Ueda Juho (上田寿方) — a warm, deeply earthen bowl in the dialect of one of Japan's oldest ceramic traditions. The clay body is the particular red-brown of Shigaraki's iron-bearing soil, scattered throughout with white feldspar granules that surface through the glaze like a geology lesson rendered in miniature. The walls carry the trace of wheel throwing in quiet horizontal rhythm, the form settling into a compact, grounded silhouette.
The interior holds a smooth, slightly darker surface that reads as intimate against the rougher exterior character. The foot ring is unglazed, showing the fired clay directly. The piece comes in its original signed tomobako.
▸ Type: Matcha bowl (chawan), Shigaraki-yaki ▸ Artist: Ueda Juho (上田寿方) ▸ Kiln: Shigaraki, Shiga Prefecture ▸ Dimensions: Diameter approx. 12.0 cm, height approx. 8.0 cm ▸ Box: Tomobako (signed) ▸ Condition: Good vintage condition
◆ Shigaraki — Earth and Fire Shigaraki is among the Six Ancient Kilns of Japan, a designation that marks it as one of the continuous firing traditions that predate the formal tea ceremony itself. Shigaraki clay is high in feldspar and iron; when fired in wood kilns, it produces the characteristic warm-orange body with white feldspar pops and, in some firings, natural ash glaze effects. The Shigaraki aesthetic is synonymous with the wabi sensibility — an aesthetic of quiet irregularity and material honesty.
◆ The Feldspathic Surface The white mineral inclusions in this bowl are not decoration: they are the clay body itself, its geological composition made visible by heat. Each white point is a feldspar crystal that has survived the kiln unchanged, a record of where the bowl came from.
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