Black Tea Bowl with Tortoise and Crane Design

Black Tea Bowl with Tortoise and Crane Design
This black tea bowl is of the same deep cylindrical form as the previous bowl (cat. no. 65), but its sides are almost straight. Its mouth turns slightly inward, and it has a tokin or “helmet” foot, with the interior of the foot trimmed so that it rises to a peak in the center. There are three spur marks on the bottom. The glaze is glossy; the inside of the bowl does not have a chadamari. On the outside, a crane, one leg bent at the knee, has been created on one side using sgraffito. Below it we see the Kenzan signature, written horizontally in underglaze iron, within an oval produced by scratching off the glaze. On the opposite side, inside the bowl, a small, slowly walking turtle has been rendered in sgraffito. The intent is to present an amusing experience: as one drinks the tea, the charming turtle appears.