About Tokoname-Yaki Green Ash Glaze Kyusu - Shiraiwa Taisuke - 180 ml

This kyusu was made by Shiraiwa Taisuke, who learned the craft in Tokoname under Konishi Yōhei, one of the makers Tokoname City recognises as a holder of its intangible cultural property. The lineage shows in every line: the full, low body, the flat lid seated flush in its gallery, the short spout drawn cleanly from the wall, the conical side handle set for a one-handed pour with a fingertip on the lid. It is a Tokoname pot made the Tokoname way, thrown thin on the wheel and finished by hand.

What sets it apart is the fire. Most Tokoname kyusu come out of gas or electric kilns; this one was wood-fired, in a kiln Shiraiwa built himself. The glaze is an ash glaze, made from wood ash rather than milled minerals, and it fires to a deep moss green with the glassy depth of a pond in shade. Across the belly and up the shoulder the surface breaks into a fine crystalline frost, pale flecks scattered through the green like lichen on stone. Where the flame and flying ash reached the pot directly, the green darkens to brown-black and pools; where they missed it, the throwing rings show through as fine ridges beneath the glaze. Around the lid seat and along the spout the glaze thins and catches the light. A wood kiln is loaded, lit and tended for days, and every pot comes out carrying the record of exactly where it sat and what the fire did to it. No second pot will look like this one.

In use the rounded body gives the leaf room to open and holds heat a little longer than a flat pot, which suits everyday sencha, hōjicha and bancha, and works well for gyokuro brewed cool. The glazed interior does not season the way unglazed clay does, so this is a pot that can move between teas without carrying one into the next.

About the Artisan

Shiraiwa Taisuke is a Tokoname-trained kyusu maker of the renowned Konishi Yōhei line. Born in 1985 in Matsumae, Hokkaido, he studied ceramics at the Hakodate campus of Hokkaido University of Education under Kodaira Yukio, graduating in 2009. In 2010 he went to Tokoname and apprenticed under Konishi Yōhei, holder of Tokoname City's intangible cultural property for kyusu making, and it is Konishi's forms and standards that shape his work. In 2013 he built his own wood-fired kiln, Kurakake, at the foot of Mt Hakodate, where he continues to make Tokoname-style kyusu, firing with wood in the old manner.

His standing has grown quickly. He has held solo exhibitions at Mitsukoshi Sapporo every year since 2017 and shown alongside his teacher at Isetan Shinjuku and Ginza Mitsukoshi. His kyusu have been selected repeatedly for the East Japan Traditional Crafts Exhibition, the Japan Sencha Craft Exhibition and the Japan Traditional Crafts Exhibition, including the 68th in 2021. In 2019 he was admitted as a full member of the Japan Sencha Craft Association and in 2020 as a full member of the Japan Kōgei Association, a recognition most potters wait decades for; he received it at thirty-five.

Details

Origin: Tokoname-yaki (Konishi Yōhei lineage)
Artist: Shiraiwa Taisuke (白岩大佑)
Training: Konishi Yōhei, Tokoname
Capacity: 180 ml
Style: Round kyusu with side handle
Material: Tokoname clay
Technique: Ash glaze, wood-fired
Form: Round body, flat lid, single steam hole
Includes: Kyusu with lid
Use: Sencha, hōjicha, bancha, gyokuro