Wide mouthed with sloping sides, Masayuki Uraguchi shaped this celadon tea bowl similar to a tenmoku chawan but even wider. It is a classic summer tea bowl, allowing maximum surface area for the matcha to cool quickly. The conical form recalls the Song dynasty celadons that infatuated Uraguchi and inspired so much of his work.

Perhaps the most intriguing feature of this chawan is its crazing. The strict symmetry and elegance of the bowl is relieved by a warm crackle throughout the glaze. But if you look carefully, in between this mauve web, there is a very subtle additional crazing. It creates a crystalline effect, especially inside the bowl itself.

Uraguchi threw the rim especially fine. Here the glaze is at its thinnest which exposes the iron in the clay body and acts as delicate outline. And the transition from the iron rim into the celadon glaze is seamless: it fades from orange into a glowing gold and then the warm green-blue. Like gradations of colour in a dawn sky, it’s in these subtleties where celadon works its magic.

Comes with the signed, stamped, and titled wood box, stamped wrapping cloth and CV.