Height: 8.1 cm, Mouth Diameter: 13.0 cm, Foot Diameter: 5.6 cm
This is a generously sized, somewhat thick-walled tea bowl with a chamfered rim and a small, sharply carved foot. Although it features a tea pool on the interior, the overall execution is quite rough. A white-outlined depiction of Mount Fuji is rendered on one side of the body, while the area from the waist to the foot is left unglazed to reveal the raw clay, with the rest covered in a thick layer of black glaze. The seal stamped beside the foot is commonly known as the “Kiraku” seal. It was used between the time he inherited the name Kichizaemon at the age of 17 in the eighth year of the Bunka era (1811) and the age of 32, and this piece is considered one of his early works. The lid of the inner box bears the inscription “Fuji-e Black Tea Bowl, Raku ‘Kichizaemon’,” while the underside of the lid is inscribed by Seisai Sōsa with “Made by Taniri, Black Tea Bowl, Inscription: Tōkai-ten, Left (Seal).”
