199. ŌHASHI Shūji, 1795­‒1857, e-Shino chawan

199. ŌHASHI Shūji  大橋秋二, 1795­‒1857, e-Shino (painted Shino) chawan (teabowl)

Ōhashi Shūji was a doctor in Kyoto known for his refined taste who enjoyed tea ceremony and painting.

He worked under Ogata Shuhei 尾形周平.  (1788–1839) in Kyoto creating works in various ceramic styles such as Seto, Karatsu, Hagi, Korai, and Mishima. Later he retired to Mino (Gifu Prefecture) where he continued making pottery. His works are displayed in Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art.

Brown clay. Shino glaze that has discolored over time to a creamy tan with a painting of pine trees and accents in dark brown, with splashes of thicker white Shino glaze along the rim and sides. Foot ring and the bottom areas of walls left unglazed. Weight: 246 g (8 oz). Height: 8.2 cm (3-14 in). Diameter of rim: 8.8 cm (3-1/2 in); of foot ring 5.1 cm (2 in); maximum: 9 cm (3-5/8 in).

This sits on an irregularly shaped foot ring , roughly 5 cm in diameter, 0.3 cm (1/8 in) high on the inside and 0.6 cm (1/4 in) on the exterior. The walls bulge outward to the maximum diameter of 9 cm centered about 3.7 cm (1-1/2 in) above the base and then slant inward slightly to just below the rim where they flare outward slightly to meet the rim. The exterior surface shows signs of having been roughly smoothed with a small bamboo paddle. The surface is rough and broken. There are hairline cracks in the glaze on the exterior. The author’s given name Shūji  秋二  is incised into the unglazed portion of the walls just above the foot ring. The next character is unclear. It may be 画, “paint, draw” meaning “drawn by Shūji.”

The basic Shino glaze was overpainted with a dark brown glaze to form a picture of two pine trees. The rim was also coated with the brown glaze. Thicker blobs of the white Shine glaze were added over the brown glaze on the rim and allowed to drip down. Parts of the pine trees drawn were also overpainted with a thin coating of the white Shino glaze. The foot ring and a triangular area on the walls near the base were left unglazed.  The glaze has darkened over time; the colors in the first and the last two pictures above come closest to the colors of the piece.

This came in an old box with the characters 秋二作  (Shūji saku;  “made by Shūji “) and  茶碗  (chawan) written on the top (the character for “wan” used on the box has the tree 木 radical rather than the stone 石 radical shown here).

Purchased from Treasures of Oldtimes in Bangkok in September 2022.