Bizen sake cup

This Bizen sake cup is by the brilliant and eccentric artist Juro Harada, who was described as a "prodigy in the making" while researching old Bizen pottery alongside the legendary Bizen scholar Matasaburo Katsura. Unlike the heavily fired pieces typically associated with Harada, this work is notable for its softer clay texture. The bright scarlet "nuke" (clear patch) on the front is quite rare, and rather than the sweet, light scarlet of a softer firing, it carries a deep, intense scarlet reminiscent of an antique Bizen piece recovered from the sea. The interior features a faint orange-tinted clay body with deep reddish-purple hues arising from it; when wetted with sake, it looks exactly like an ancient Bizen piece pulled up from the ocean floor. Signed wooden box (shiho-san style)
Diameter 7.7cm × Diameter 7.0cm × Height 6.8cm After graduating from Meiji University and working in a corporate position, Juro Harada began his pottery career in 1969. He built an anagama kiln in 1971 and a climbing kiln the following year, committing himself fully to the craft. From 1975, under the guidance of Bizen scholar Matasaburo Katsura, he visited old kiln sites to study ancient Bizen pottery. In 1991, he built an anagama kiln at Amidayama in Ushimado. He produces jars, tea ceremony utensils, and leaf-shaped dishes, using the coil-building technique alongside some wheel-thrown work. He has been active in holding solo exhibitions in cities such as Tokyo and Osaka. In 1983, he held a two-person exhibition with Kenji Funaki of Fushina ware at the National Museum of Ethnology in Australia. He received the Japan Ceramic Society Award in 2000. In 2002, his work was exhibited and acquired for the opening commemorative exhibition of the Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu. In 2005, his work was acquired by the New Orleans Museum of Art in the United States.