Year: 2023
Medium: earthenware with black Raku glaze (Raku ware)
Dimensions: Φ12.7 x 10.2 cm (Φ5 x 4 in.)
Acquired from Isetan Art Gallery, 2024
This black Raku tea bowl was fired using a black glaze made with black stones gathered from the Kamo River mixed into the glaze material. The bowl was fired at a relatively low temperature of around 1,000 degrees Celsius and then rapidly cooled, producing its deep black surface. In this work, however, faint reddish tones emerge subtly from within the black, evoking the image of clouds drifting through dim twilight.
The effect is achieved through a glazing technique unique to Raku ware known as shu-yū (“crimson glaze”), said to have been established between the third-generation Raku master Dōnyū and the fourth-generation Ichinyū. The red coloration appears when the copper contained in the glaze reacts during reduction firing, a process in which the work is fired in a low-oxygen environment.
