Height 22.0 cm, mouth diameter 11.4 cm, bottom diameter 12.8 cm
This is a cylindrical vase with a slightly distorted body. The shallow, slightly wide neck under the mouth and several oblique spatula lines along the bottom of the mouth give the monotonous shape of this vase some variety, and the breathing of the spatula is truly skillful. The mouth may have been made in the style of a nock-shaped mouth, but the rim has been crushed and dropped. This is probably the work of a tea ceremony master who was particularly interested in a wabi-style atmosphere.
The front of this ware, in particular, has a grayish-blue dark skin like a cloud with a reddish skin like a half-moon, which was an accident in the kiln. A plum-bowl style mark is engraved below the mouth, which is a rare kiln mark rarely seen elsewhere. The clay of the body is wrapped around the flat bottom, but some of it is rolled up to the outside. This is probably due to the unique Bizen process of one-pot molding, in which the clay for the bottom is first placed on the potter’s wheel, and then more clay is placed on top of it.
