Karatsu ware tea bowls were presented to the Tokugawa Shogunate year after year. It was first made during the Kan’ei era (1624-44) by the Karatsu castle lord Terasawa Shima-no-Mori Hirotaka, who ordered a craftsman from Shiinomine to make it, and since then it was made by the successive Karatsu castle lords Okubo, Matsudaira, Doi and Mizuno. The most famous example is a large tea bowl inlaid with a cloud-and-crane pattern in iron. It is made of white clay with a loquat-colored glaze, and the base is about 5 mm higher than ordinary ones.
