Also written as “kodai” and “koutai. The base of a bowl or dish. The base of tea bowls and bowls is an important part of tea utensils for appreciation. Some dishes of the late Shukubu earthenware period have clay rings attached to the bottom of the bowl or dish to create what is called a tsuki-taidai, which suggests that the origin of the takaidai was to stabilize the vessel. In later periods, however, after the clay was water-ground and half-dried, a planer was used to carve out the base, and depending on the shape of the ring, it was called a ring base, a crescent base (kata-susumi base), a snake’s-eye base, or a double base, a helical base, a shell-shaped base, a spiral base, or a crepe base, depending on the state of the carving marks in the ring, or a bamboo joint base, depending on the shape of the leg that forms the height of the base. The shape of the foot, or the part that forms the height of the base, is referred to as a bamboo joint base. A part of the ring of the stand is called kiri-takadai or wari-takadai, and the inside of the stand is called kugibori-takadai (carved with nails in the shape of whorls). The names itokiri-takadai and ita-awake-takadai are used for pieces that do not have the appearance of a takadai and were left as they were when they were mizuhigiri, but this is contrary to the meaning of the word takadai. The name “takadai,” which is a characteristic of Iro-Nabeshima, is based on the decorative design of the foot of the takadai. The shapes are not only circular, but also rhombic and square, as in Raku ware and Oribe ware. The shape of the base is not only round, but also diamond-shaped and square-shaped, as in Raku ware and Oribe ware. It is said that the cutting of the base is based on the fact that water-ground, wheel-thrown, and thread-cut marbled ware tends to crack at the bottom during drying, and that the shaving of the base is a measure to prevent this. However, this is an argument that does not consider the past while focusing only on the present. Other reasons for the existence of the high stand include the stability of vessels, the economic advantage of heavy firing, the formal beauty of the vessels, and various other reasons. The inside of the stand is called the back of the stand, and the low part of the outer side of the vessel is called the side of the stand, both of which are points of appreciation. The Korean word for “high stand” is “kupu. See each section for details on each type of kotdaes.
