213. Black Oribe chawan

213. Black Oribe chawan  (Kuro Oribe chawan   黒織部茶碗)

 

Light gray clay, with a lighter color slip and a thick black glaze over the interior and most of the exterior walls; base unglazed except around the outer edges. Weight: 368 g (13 oz). Height: 7.5 cm (3 in). Width 12.5 cm (5 in). Width of foot ring: 5.4 cm (2-1/8 in). 

This sits on the foot ring , which is an irregular circle, about 0.3 cm (1/8 in) high on the outer side and 0.1 cm (1/16 in) on the inside.  Above the foot ring , the walls of the base rise at a shallow angle to meet the perpendicular walls of the bowl, beginning about 2 cm (3/4 in) above the base. The walls are much grooved and bumpy, but with a pronounced groove near the center. The rim is quite irregular. The surface is relatively smooth to the touch. 

The interior and about three-quarters of the exterior walls are covered with a thick black glaze, much pitted. The remainder of the exterior wall appears to have been coated with a light-colored slip. Within this are darker “ghost” figures—perhaps created with a resist technique or perhaps a glaze that fell off during the firing.  It’s impossible to tell what they represent. 

The seller says this dates to the mid-Edo period, eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. The ghost figures add an intriguing element to this piece. This came with a box and a wrapping cloth; the top of the box has the characters 黒織部茶碗 (kuro Oribe chawan, black Oribe teabowl).

Purchased from Treasures of Old Times in Bangkok in April 2023.