Height 8.8cm, mouth diameter 10.2cm, base diameter 5.0cm
This tea bowl is a representative of Setoguro tea bowls and is said to have been owned by Rikyu. There are few Setoguro teacups, and as far as we know, we only know of this teacup and one or two others such as “Winter Night” and “Nisshon”. On the back of the lid of the outer box, there is an inscription by an unknown author, “This tea bowl came from Edo (now Tokyo). Indeed, it is a tea bowl with a strong artifice using a spatula as the so-called Setoguro, and it is rather close to Oribe Kuro.
The height is low, the waist is taut and rises up in a cylindrical shape, and the mouth is gently undulating with a slight bowing at the edges. The body is of course wheel-thrown, but the spatula is fully applied to give it a hand-held appearance, and the inside of the mouth is also covered with spatula, with a shallow beveled spatula on the waist. The low, tight base is thick on one side and thin on the other, with a large kabukin standing out inside.
The clay is grayish-white with brownish brown burns from the waist to the base. It is glazed with a shiny jet-black glaze, but the prospective color is brownish-brown.
The name “Obaraki” may have come from the name of firewood from Obara in northern Kyoto, which is also called Kuroki (black wood). It is housed in a simple tame-nuri kyokumono, with “Obaraki” written in yellow lacquer on the front of the lid. The writer is said to be Rikyu. On the cover of the outer box, “Seto Black Tea Bowl” is written. It was handed down through the Akahoshi family, Masuda Bunko, and others.
