Posted 2 years ago
kwqd
(1184 items)
This unmarked cup is 3.25" high x 3.25" in diameter. It has an odd design on two sides which consists of sort of a "4" in iron oxide and a roundish blue mark. On one side this kind of looks like the number "40" so of course I am calling this the Forty Cup. It is larger than a typical yunomi and also a bit oddly sized as it is as high as is it wide.
Interesting glaze and coloring, the white circle is crackled and the surrounding brown area is thick with a few bubbles in it and a darker blue/gray under glaze comes through in places. The seller described the glaze as "tenmoku", though I disagree. I like that the interior is white to allow viewing of the color of the tea poured or drunk from it.
I eventually found a very similar cup, the only difference being that the inset circle was only on one side of the cup, but is on two sides on mine. The other example included a mass produced tomobako and some literature which said the following:
"This tea cup is well known MASHIKO YAKI made in TOCHIGI prefecture, we had it specially made for ZAKURO, we hope that you will like it."
The literature, also included the names of several cities and beside each name a telephone number. Using this information I was eventually able to discover that Zakuro is a restaurant chain. My guess is that a few versions of this cup were made and probably sold at these restaurants or came free with meals. There was no clue as to which kiln made the cups in the literature, though. These cups are probably larger than normal yunomi to accommodate their Western customers' expectations of cup sizes.
I do not know when these cups were made or what kiln made them. These cups, mass produced for Zakuro, are being offered for sale on ebay at many times their actual value. At any moment there are at least a dozen for sale on that site. Funny to watch but it baffles me that someone would pay more than a few dollars for one of these, especially if offered with no wooden box. I have been monitoring this for several months and have yet to see one sell at the inflated prices but the show goes on. The cup in this post is a particularly fine example and I paid under $20 including shipping for it. I have a couple of others that I paid less for.
Thanks Jenni, vcal, fortapache, ho2cultcha, Vynil33rpm, Kevin, Cisum and dav2no1!
The plot thickens..
Thanks for checking out my mystery Japanese cup Jenni and Alfie21!
For what it's worth, I think this is a yunomi. As you say, ko-chawan/kojawan -- small matcha teabowls -- are wider than they are tall, particularly because they need to accommodate the tea caddy inside, which would be difficult with a skinny bowl.
The only instance I'm aware of where you would find a "tall" chawan is the tsutsujawan, a cylindrical teabowl that's traditionally used -- when it's used at all -- in the coldest winter month (February) to help keep the matcha warm longer. The real-life examples I've seen of tsutsujawan are all very tubular in shape, without a flared lip like yours. In addition, yours has smaller dimensions than the typical tsutsujawan. I would also expect a tsutsujawan to be signed or marked by the potter. So if there is no mark, again to me that suggests a yunomi.
But you can find exceptions to anything, so I will just say "probably", not "definitely" ;)
Thanks for your comments, rhineisfine! Maybe a yunmoi but it dwarfs all of my other Japanese yunomi and pretty sure this is Japanese. The only yunomi of this size that I have are American or English made. I do have a couple of large mystery yunomi that I have not been able to determine the origin of, but pretty sure they are not Japanese. If I get desperate enough, I may send some images to my American dealer friend in Japan. He is an expert in Japanese pottery. Have to figure out if I want to pester him with this, though.... BTW, I sent a link to my CW post for my "Kutani" mountain vase to http://www.kutani.org and paid them to see if they could identify the maker and they are certain it is not Kutani, IS Japanese, but do not know who made it. Sigh!
Mystery partially solved. See description.
did,not follow the discussion , but are we needing expertise to assess kutani,s really ?
and i love this piece , more bang for a buck the simple onces are always the best,
Thanks for your comments! Glad you like it. The conversation was about the size of this cup as it is large for a yunomi, but rhineisfine was correct, it is a yunomi.
The Kutani reference was for this vase which I was sure was Kutani but wanted to know the kiln:
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/284274-japanese-mountain-vase?in=collection-7139
In the opinion of kutani.org it is not Kutani and they even refunded the small fee they charged for assessing it.
Thanks SEAN68!
Yunomi it is, then :) Good work on tracking down the additional information! It’s always satisfying when you get a bit more information on a piece, isn’t it?
Yup! It is, rhineisfine! I am loathe to make statements if I cannot cite a good source.