Ido-style tea bowl

Like many contemporary Japanese ceramists, Tsujimura Shiro produces pottery in a variety of historic styles. For this tea bowl, he was inspired by the simple bowls first imported from Korea in the sixteenth century. Because of their generous proportions, the Japanese dubbed these bowls ido or deep well, and they became popular for use in the tea ceremony. Typically, the potter covered the rough clay body with a light-colored slip before applying a transparent ash glaze. Pieces of sand in the clay broke through the slip in the intense heat of the kiln, creating the mottled coloration and appealing texture that characterizes this bowl.