Height 8.0 cm, Mouth Diameter 12.0 cm, Foot Diameter 5.0 cm
Tekisui Art Museum
On the inside of the lid of this tea bowl’s inner box is inscribed: “Red Tea Bowl, Rikyu-style, made by my mother and father; Yabee (seal).” This indicates that it is a reproduction of the “Hachi-biraki,” one of the Seven Rikyu Styles. While reproductions of the Seven Rikyu Styles have been made since the Ichin’yu period, it appears that Tamamizu-yaki also produced reproductions of these styles. This is a slightly tall tea bowl, with a body that is slightly tapered and a rim featuring gentle undulations. It is thin-walled overall, with a tea pool in the interior, and the foot is small. The glaze is thickly applied over the entire surface, with some craquelure visible, and three marks remain on the footring. Both this tea bowl and the black tea bowl have “Yabee” written on their box labels and bear a seal mark, but the seal marks on the two bowls are different. However, the handwriting is quite similar, and it is currently unclear who this “Yabee” with a different seal mark was. The Tamamizu-yaki potters who went by the name “Yabee” include the first-generation Ichigen, his son Ikku, and his younger brother Ninto-sai. Since Ninto-sai used the same seal from early in his career through to his later years, this different seal is thought to belong to either the first-generation Ichigen or the second-generation Ikku. However, it is not clear which of the two it is.
