Shigaraki Chawan – Poured Ash Glaze Matcha Bowl

Rivers of pale ash glaze pour across a night-dark body on this Shigaraki chawan — broad, confident trails of gray-green that fork and branch over the blackened, gritty clay like streams crossing volcanic ground. The composition is pure gesture: poured and brushed in moments, fixed forever by the fire.

The surface rewards touch as much as sight — matte, stony black against the satin of the glaze trails, with fine speckling throughout. Inside, a single sweep of gray crosses the dark well, waiting to disappear and reappear beneath whisked green. A compact foot ring in bare red-brown clay carries an impressed seal.

We selected this piece in person in Shigaraki.

Origin: Shigaraki, Shiga Prefecture, Japan
Decoration: Poured and brushed ash glaze (nagashi-gake) over iron-dark stoneware
Dimensions: 12.1 cm × 8.4 cm H
Weight: 281 g
Marks: Impressed maker's seal within the foot (unattributed)
Condition: New, handmade — the raw clay surfaces, glaze trails, and speckling are inherent to the piece
Box: Kraft box

Tea people speak of a bowl's keshiki (景色) — its "scenery." Glaze runs become waterfalls; speckles become drifting snow; a bare patch of clay becomes a mountainside. Part of the pleasure of owning a bowl like this is finding your own landscape in it, and choosing which face to present forward when you serve tea.

This chawan offers scenery in abundance: turn it, and the pale rivers redraw themselves against the dark ground with every quarter-rotation. No two servings ever quite face the same view.

Shigaraki, in the hills of Shiga Prefecture, has fired pottery for over seven centuries as one of Japan's Six Ancient Kilns. Its wares have always let the material speak — coarse local clay, ash, and flame doing the decorating that a painter's brush does elsewhere.

This bowl works squarely in that tradition: no image, no pattern, just clay and glaze in motion.

Hand wash with warm water and a soft cloth. Avoid dishwashers, microwaves, and abrasive scrubbing. Dry fully before storing.

The unglazed clay areas may deepen slightly in tone with use — welcome scenery of its own.

This is the exact bowl photographed — once sold, it will not be restocked.

Carefully packed and shipped directly from our Kyoto studio via Japan Post EMS, fully tracked and insured.