Height 7.0cm, mouth diameter 11.7cm, bottom diameter 4.5cm
This is an ordinary bowl with a bowl-shaped body and a slightly flattened, large lid. As there are many examples of the same shape in Qianzan ware, it is likely that Qianzan purchased a large quantity of this type of base material, painted it in a unique manner, and sold it commercially. Nowadays, however, it is not used as a covered tea bowl, but is often used as a matcha bowl with the lid removed one by one, but this is an example where ten pieces of both body and lid have been handed down as they were in the past. The technique is the same as that used for the tsutsu mukozuke and the iron-zome mukozuke with iron-zome underglaze iron-work, with a partial white underglaze, a wave pattern in gosu overlay, cranes roughly arranged in iron pigments, and needlework on the wings and part of the outline of the cranes, then the entire surface, except for the inside of the body base, is glazed in transparent glaze and fired. The interesting arrangement of the white underglaze, the cranes painted in a variety of ways, and the free variation in each piece, all suggest not only craftsmanship but also a spirit of elegance and refinement. The body is inscribed with the characters “KENZAN” on each side of the base, but the style of writing is uneven.
