Height 8.8cm, Bore 11.1-12.0cm, Base 4.8cm in diameter
Kitamura Museum of Art
This tea bowl is similar to NONKOU, and the black glaze on the whole surface is also similar to NONKOU’s black tea bowl, with a white snake snail pattern on one side of the bowl. However, the height of the tea bowl shows the hand of Koetsu, not that of NONKOU. Rather than being a bowl with Koetsu’s characteristic, this type of bowl may have been made as one of the styles of Chojiro ware. The mouth is oval, the base is low and flat, and there are five irregular marks on the bottom. The bottom of the bowl has five irregular marks. The body has a shallow chamfered spatula and a flat surface, which is common to Koetsu tea bowls, and the mouth has a kiln flaw. On the front of the lid of the inner box, there is an inscription “Azuma Koetsu zukuri” and a tag on the lid that states that it was made by Koetsu Ryonen. It is said to have come from the Mitsui Jirozaemon family.
