Nisai glazed ware: bowl.
8th century.
Height 13.0cm, Diameter 22.0cm, Body 24.7cm.
Shosoin
This bowl is an iron bowl with a pointed base and an inward-facing mouth rim. There are three types of bowls in the Shosoin: A, B, and C. The A type has a green glaze running from the mouth rim to the bottom, as in this bowl, and there are nine pieces in this category. Class B is a green-glazed single-petal design, and Class C is a green-glazed design with a series of arc motifs in different tiers.
Some of the A type vessels, like this one, have green-glazed streamers in the same color tone, while others have alternating shades of green-glazed streamers.
The clay used for the base is a rather coarse grayish-white clay, but it has a sharp wheel-thrown finish and is thin and fine work. The glaze was first applied in four stripes of dark green glaze from the mouth rim to the bottom, then evenly spaced between the stripes to the bottom, and then filled with stripes of light green glaze in between. The light green glaze is not present in some areas and varies in length. White glaze is applied on both the interior and exterior surfaces. There is a trifurcation mark on the underside of the bottom from the firing process.
