Teabowl by SAKATA Jinnai (b.1943) by Jinnai SAKATA

A deep teabowl of near-cylindrical form, its walls rising almost straight before curving in towards the foot, the surface gently rippled by the turn of the wheel. The bowl is made in kokuto, stoneware darkened by smoke in the kiln. The unglazed exterior shifts from ash grey to soft ochre and russet, while a broad plume of smoky black climbs one side from the base like a drifting cloud, scattered with a few darker flecks. The interior is lined with nashiji lacquer, its gold flakes thinning out over the dark well and gathering into a dense, glittering band beneath the rim. The polished lacquer makes a quiet contrast with the raw, fire-marked clay outside.

SAKATA Jinnai was born in Tokyo in 1943. In 1964 he became a pupil of KAMODA Shoji (1933–1983), who had set up his kiln in Mashiko in 1959, and two years later Sakata built his own climbing kiln at Kami-Oba in Mashiko. From 1971 he held regular solo exhibitions in Tokyo, first at the Akasaka Green Gallery and from 1987 at Nihonbashi Takashimaya, and in 1994 he took part in the opening exhibition of the Art Gallery Takashimaya in New York. In the 1990s his practice widened beyond clay, combining smoke-blackened stoneware with washi paper and later with glass and metal. His work is in the collections of the British Museum, London, and Waseda University, Tokyo.