The up close look and feel

The glaze is matte and fine-grained, the kind of surface that feels slightly warm. In direct light it reads white. In shadow it shifts toward grey and a soft lavender.

The rim is uneven in the way hand-thrown Hagi bowls are, not quite circular, which gives it something to rest the eye on as you turn it. The foot is left rough and unglazed, as is traditional in Hagi-yaki. Once you start using this bowl, the clay at the foot and through the crazing will slowly absorb the tea, and the colour will begin to deepen. That change belongs to you.

Charming details

The foot ring is cut through in a cross. This feature is called warikodai (割高台) and it is specific to the Hagi tradition. The original reason was practical: the cut releases tension in the soft Hagi clay during firing, preventing the foot from cracking.

Over centuries it became an aesthetic signature, something practitioners look for as a mark of Hagi identity. On this bowl the cut is clean and deliberate, the two notches meeting at right angles.

Look inside the foot ring and you will also find the maker's small impressed seal, the same mark that appears alongside Moriwaki Fumitada's calligraphic signature on the tomobako.