Vintage Japanese Tea Ceremony Bowl (Hisada Shigeyoshi) - Rare

Vintage tenmoku [天目] tea bowl used in the ritual of drinking matcha during formal tea drinking events made by award-winning artisan Hisada Shigeyoshi (see "Shigeyoshi" [重義] signature on box lid and at the base of the bowl). Please search his name, you'll find his past tenmoku work which was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC and in national museums and galleries throughout Japan. His works trade at auction houses and by sellers worldwide. Here's an excerpt about this artisan referring to his exhibited work from The Met's website: "Hisada Shigeyoshi was one of the few contemporary artists to experiment with new types of tenmoku glazes while also re-creating traditional examples [...] The artist submitted the vessel, named “Wind,” to the 25th Tōkai Traditional Art Craft Exhibition, where it won the Grand Prize of the Traditional Japanese Art Craft Association." This type of stoneware is called "tenmoku" which results in a shimmery metallic finish. The iconic finish was inspired by ancient Chinese Song Dynasty "Ji'an" stoneware which used iron and feldspar as coloring agents and it flourished during the mid-1100s. Ancient Korean and then Japanese artisans around that time refined the technique to produce a dark, lustrous and pearlescent finish that is world renowned today. Tenmoku glaze bowls are almost always black or near black/dark blue in color and the shape typically flares out in a near funnel-like form. They can be used for drinking sake, but most typically used for teas like matcha, though you can drink any type of tea with this beauty. Condition: Excellent and in its original pawlonia box with shifuku (dust bag) and towel. The bowl is in pristine condition and an investment grade work of art. Provenance: From the private collection of family based in Yamagata, Japan, thence by descent. 🗾

Condition

Open Box (never used)

Color

Black

Material

Ceramic

Country of Manufacture

Japan