About Japanese Teacup Yunomi Pair - Shimizu Suigetsu III - 250ml / 210ml

A matched pair of handmade Japanese teacups by Shimizu Suigetsu III, one of the most decorated living masters of Banko-yaki.
The two cups are deliberately not identical. One is slightly larger, one slightly smaller. This is the meoto (夫婦) pairing, the traditional Japanese "Man and Woman" set: two cups made as one, sharing a design but never the same size, meant to sit together on a table for two.

Around each cup, maple leaves drift across a web of flowing, crossing lines. It is one of the oldest motifs in Japanese decorative art, maple leaves carried on moving water, an image tied to autumn and to the passage of time, to the idea that beauty is felt most keenly because it does not last.
And it is not painted. The design is sandblasted into the clay itself: the pattern is masked, and the exposed surface is cut back with fine abrasive under pressure, removing a whisper-thin layer of the body to reveal the paler clay beneath. The leaves are not something added to the cup. They are what is left after everything around them is taken away. Which means there is no ink, no decal, no printed transfer, nothing sitting on the surface that can chip, scratch, or fade with use. The pattern is the clay, and it will look exactly like this in fifty years. It also gives the surface a faint, tactile depth you can feel under the fingertips as you turn the cup, matte where it has been cut, smooth where it has not.

The contrast is the pleasure of these cups. Outside: dark, matte, restrained. Inside: a clean white glaze that lifts the color of the tea and shows it clearly, so a green tea reads bright and alive against the pale interior. Both cups sit on a neat trimmed foot, and the flared rim is comfortable at the lip.
They come with their original signed wooden box (tomobako), inscribed and sealed by the artist. In Japanese ceramics this is not packaging, it is provenance: the box records the piece, its maker, and its origin, and a piece that keeps its original box holds its lineage in a way an unboxed one cannot.
Made for daily tea. Sencha, hojicha, genmaicha, or anything you drink slowly across a table from someone.

About the artist

Shimizu Suigetsu III is the third-generation bearer of the Suigetsu name, working from the family kiln in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, the historic home of Banko ware. Banko-yaki is one of Japan's designated traditional crafts, known for a dense clay with excellent heat retention, long prized for Japanese green tea.
What sets Suigetsu III apart within the tradition is restraint. Rather than painted decoration or heavy glaze, his surfaces work with the clay itself, patterns that shift between matte and softly reflective as the light moves. Nothing shouts. The longer you look, the more there is.
That discipline has been recognized at the highest levels of Japanese craft. He has received more than twenty honors at national ceramic and traditional craft exhibitions, including the Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition, and his work has been presented to members of the Japanese Imperial Household.

Details:

Artist: Shimizu Suigetsu III, third-generation Banko-yaki master
Origin: Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, Japan
Ware: Banko-yaki
Form: Meoto yunomi, a traditional man and woman teacup pair (one larger, one smaller)
Design: Maple leaves over flowing-water lines, sandblasted into the clay (not painted, will not chip or fade)
Interior: White glaze
Includes: Original signed and sealed wooden box (tomobako)
Capacity: approx. 250 ml / 210 ml
Care: Hand-wash only, no dishwasher, dry fully before storing