Friday, February 1, 2008

Seiryu Ippuku Wan

My new tea cup from Zencha, made by Yamane Seigan (click on the link for a brief interview and biography of the artist).

"Making pottery is a means to be a vacuum rather than a way to express myself."

This is my first Hagi-yaki. Hagi-yaki is a form of Japanese pottery that began just prior to the Edo period. During Hideyoshi Toyatomi's invasion of Korea in the 1590's, he ordered a Hagi daimyo, Mori Terumoto to bring back two Korean potters, Yi Sukkwang and Yi Kyung to establish kilns in Hagi. This form was also called Kourai, Korean pottery.

I think it is one the most beautiful cups I've seen. It reminds me of Starry Night. Like looking at twilight.

In case anyone's wondering how to care for Hagi-yaki:

  • When using it for the very first time, rinse and let is soak in water over night to remove any dust or smells from the packing
  • Before each use, let it sit and absorb water to prevent tea from soaking into it and causing tea stains.
  • Do not microwave.
  • Avoid leaving food or liquids high in acid, oil or alcohol in it for extended periods of time in it.
  • After rinsing, dry throughly before storing. Hagi-yaki absorbs water, and improper storage may cause molding.


Update: I Googled Yamane Seigan and found another interesting link here. I love being able to attach a name and a face to my tea ware. I looked around and Yamane-san seems quite fond of the blue glaze, which they have come to call Seigan blue.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is absolutely stunning. Truly, it's one of the prettiest ceramics I've ever seen. It really appeals to me.

I'm going to check it out.


Toodlepip,

Hobbes

Cap & Kettle said...

Really, amazing. The blue is particularly interesting - not something I see in tea ware very often. About how wide is the rim?

Space Samurai said...

Its 3.9 inches in diameter.

Anonymous said...

Finally you were at zencha.net ! You can also taste their Shizuoka tea as Shizu No Mine or Shizu No Ten, my favorite daily fukamushicha !!!

Yamane Seigan is a genius, I have several chawan and yunomi by him,

His blue style name is Ao Hagi.
Cheers,

Fortunato

MarshalN said...

Just did some quick search.... stuff by this guy

http://6810.teacup.com/magokorodo/shop/01_01_01/

http://www.adeya.net/?mode=cate&cbid=251835&csid=0

http://search.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/search/auc?p=%BB%B3%BA%AC%C0%B6%B4%E1&auccat=0&alocale=0jp&acc=jp

I hope these links work....

Anonymous said...

Yes, with MAGOKORODO on ebay, you can get a lot of Seigan's items :

http://stores.ebay.com/MAGOKORODO

Fortunato

Space Samurai said...

Hey Marshal, the links were great, thank you.

Unknown said...

Wow that cup looks nice. Just is it normal for Hagi-yaki pieces to have such a large unglazed section on the bottom?

Space Samurai said...

John, I'm not completely sure what's normal for Hagi, but I've seen several items like that.

Anonymous said...

Hi - though you suggest pre-soaking Ao-Hagi to avoid tea stains - I have found it to be a far less permeable glaze than most white hagi ware - So far I have seen no tea penetration in any of my Ao-Hagi - do you also find this to be the case?

As an example some of Shibuya Deishi's work noticeably crazes and massive changes in the surface can be seen even after the first use - pre soaked or not.

This can be an amazing effect since every time the bowl is used more and more tea soaks into the cracks at different rates producing an ever changing pattern in the glaze. I find this to be part of the charm of white hagi glazes.

TimK

kamagra said...

Excellent stuff, I'd like to get a pot like that because I like the design, it's something really different, actually I'd buy that stuff, and I'd give all my money.m10m