A striking sake cup whose vivid cobalt surface emerges from the unpredictable transformations of the wood-fired kiln, by Doi Masafumi, enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled “Yōhen Ruri-yu Hai.” The thick glaze has melted and crystallized during firing into a luminous field of deep lapis blue, fading upward into pale, frosted ash deposits where heat and airborne minerals have settled across the surface. Along the lower body, the glaze gives way to a rugged band of exposed clay and fused ash, creating a dramatic meeting of glossy color and stone-like texture. The small, rounded form remains calm and balanced in the hand, allowing the brilliant ruri glaze and the dynamic evidence of the kiln’s action to become the focal point. Measuring 7.0 x 5.8 cm (2.8 x 2.3 inches), the cup is in excellent condition directly from the artist this year.
Doi Masafumi was born in Nara prefecture in 1972, and graduated the Aichi prefectural ceramic research facility in 2000. For the next seven years he would work at a kiln in Kyoto, absorbing the many styles and techniques associated with Kyo-yaki before establishing his won kiln back in Nara. He held is first solo exhibition in Kyoto in 2009, and in 2011 was awarded at the Nihon Togeiten National Ceramics Exhibition, where he has been featured many times.
