Height: 7.7 cm, Mouth Diameter: 10.1 cm, Foot Diameter: 4.4 cm
As noted in the inscription on the accompanying box, “Rikyu-style black tea bowl,” many of Sōnyū’s works are modeled after Chōjirō’s tea bowls, and this one is likely modeled after the Shunkan style. The rim is slightly curved inward, the body is tapered, and the waist is flared; the foot is small and compact, with a swirl-shaped kabuto-kin (helmet-shaped decoration) carved into its interior.
The glaze is generally thick, and parts of the black glaze on the exterior have fired to a brown hue. The interior is deep with no tea pool, and the glaze has a rough, unpolished texture. On the front of the box lid, Sōnyū has inscribed “Rikyū-style Black Tea Bowl by Tea Bowl Master Rakukichizaemon,” and on the underside of the lid, Takusai has written “Sōnyū Black Tea Bowl by Ushiwaka Sōsa (seal).”
