Flower-shaped Kizeto Mukozuke

  • Mino kiln, Gifu pref.
  • Momoyama period
  • 16th century
  • Mino ware
  • H-7.3 D-8
Catalogue Entry

Set of 5 bowls
Momoyama period, 16th century
Kizeto ware
Height, 7.3cm; mouth diameter, 7.7cm

This is a set of mukozuke dishes in the Kizeto ware style created during the most prosperous period of the Mino kilns. After the cylindrical form was wheel-thrown, a spatula was used to create eight deep vertical grooves on the exterior of the cylinder. The yellow Kizeto glaze was then applied from the interior to the exterior of each bowl and the glaze melted in the firing to a soft color. A narrow foot has been attached to the flat base of the bowl, and the interior of the foot was left unglazed. In the approximate center of each foot there is a circular sagger remains. This form of sagger is often seen in Kizeto and Shino mukozuke dishes of the Momoyama period. While we cannot determine how these cylindrical mukozuke dishes would have been used traditionally, most often these dishes have been separated from their original groups and are used individually as either small braziers or unmatched mukozuke dishes. There are only a few examples, as here, where these dishes have remained in their original set group. TA