Height: 8.5-8.8cm
Diameter: 9.8-10.6cm
Outer diameter of foot ring: 4.8cm
Height of foot ring: 0.5cm
The mouth, strong waist and other features of this tea bowl are typical of the bold style of the Momoyama period. Although this is a small, tight-fitting tea bowl for Setoguro, the foot is simple and low, and is very typical of Setoguro. However, the overall shape is somewhat similar to Oribe-style black tea bowls. The deep black glaze is particularly beautiful, and it is all the more interesting because it was not generally known in the past.
The clay is a unique Mino clay with a sandy texture, and although it is grayish-white in color, it is slightly stained with tea stains. The inside and outside are covered in jet-black glaze, and the glaze has a dull sheen with some areas of crazing. The lower part of the body is unglazed.
The shape is a deep, cylindrical tea bowl, with a relaxed lathe mark around the body, and when viewed from above, one side of the oval shape is squashed. The rim is thick and undulating, like waves, and there are lines on the inside, but they are not very noticeable. The highlight of this tea bowl is the thick diagonal lines added with a wooden spatula to the waist, which give it a tight shape.
The inside of the bowl is deeply scooped out with a trowel, and there is a tea pool that is almost a perfect circle, but the center stands up like a helmet. There are marks on the rim where it was held by a carp, which shows that it was pulled out of the kiln while it was still bright red and cooled quickly in order to make the glaze black.
Like the Rikyu Seto, it has a style that is somewhat similar to Oribe, and it is thought that it is slightly older than the normal Seto-guro. However, the shape is not as distorted as Oribe-kuro, and the age and place of production are unclear. However, it is certain that it was made in Mino during the Momoyama period, and the jet-black glaze, shape and workmanship make it one of the most attractive tea bowls in the Setoguro range.
There are two scratches on the rim, which have been repaired with black lacquer. There is a single wide vertical water channel.
The inner box is paulownia wood, and on the lid is a note by Kankyuan Nissai saying “Seto-guro ari akari”, meaning “Seto-guro is here”. This tea bowl was passed down in the Hirase family of Osaka.
