Akihiko Watanabe gave this tea bowl a classic and elegant form. Its flaring lip, high foot, and curved bowl link it to the “Curving Lip” shape with roots in Song dynasty tea bowls, and even older tulip shaped bowls of Persia. 

Watanabe told me that this chawan's unusually rich green was likely a result of the dark and fine-grained clay body as well as the bowl’s placement in his specially designed anagama kiln. Fired in reduction, it was placed on the kiln's front row, on the right, where it less hot than the centre. A small black dot appears on one side, just below the rim, likely caused by a burst of iron-oxide. Watanabe notes that this not only completes the chawan, but also makes it the shomen, or face.  

Watanabe is one of the few Japanese potters firing celadon tea wares with wood. Already a difficult medium, adding wood fuel to the celadon process results in an even higher loss rate. Despite being fired in protective saggars, his pieces still display unique atmospheric effects. For example, he points out that the double crazing on this bowl is uneven - a feature unique to wood firings - and that gas or electric firings tend to cause uniform surfaces. 

And Watanabe’s results are undeniably spectacular. This chawan’s deep colour is particularly striking for its gradations. The thin rim glows with a golden halo, dissolving into a deep green bowl, crazed and crystallized with highlights that glisten in shifting light. While Watanabe’s pieces seem perfect at first, his forms vary just slightly, letting them breathe and come to life. Like the shomen’s iron-spot, a shadow completes the beauty. 

New from the artist’s studio. Comes with the signed, stamped, and titled wood box, stamped wrapping cloth, and CV.