Vertical sides rise from the slightly elevated flat base of this wide Tea bowl by Murakoshi Takuma enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Shunju Chawan. It was fired on its side, allowing the crystalline green ash to run down in rivulets around the outside forming glass beads around the three shell marks on one side.The inside is thick white glaze, against which the whipped green tea would be fabulous.It is 13.5 x 12 x 9 cm (5-1/2 x 5 x 3-1/2 inches) and is in excellent condition, from his firing last autumn.
Murakoshi Takuma is one of those enigmas who simply lives to work with clay. He does not seek to make a living through pottery, but through his primal approach has earned a following which keeps his work in high demand. He was born in Aichi prefecture in 1954 and began his stroll down the pottery path in 1980 under the tutelage of Kyoto potter Umehara Takehira. Favoring very rough Shigaraki glaze, he established his own kiln in 1997 in the Kiyomizu pottery district of Kyoto, then moved to Nagaoka in 2002. Although eschewing the world of competitive exhibitions, he has been picked up by many of Japan’s preeminent galleries, including private exhibitions at the prestigious Kuroda Toen of Tokyo’s Ginza District.
