Bizen Sake Cup

This is a new Bizen sake cup by Yoshiteru Koriki, a popular young artist and a former live-in apprentice to the master Sozan Kaneshige. It is a piece that has been fired to the absolute limit by burying it in the embers created by burning split pine wood, yet stopped just a step before the threshold to capture a magnificent scarlet hue within the clay's natural texture. The crisply defined shading reveals a beautiful scarlet reminiscent of a hazy sunset, testifying to the god-like precision with which the firing was controlled. The interior showcases an equally mysterious clay texture, where gold-like glints transition into a platinum-like sheen and further into a grape-toned gradation. This is a rare piece that captures the fleeting moment where the intensity of extreme firing and the vitality of the clay collide at their critical threshold, layering both in a state of exquisite beauty. (Please note that there is some peeling of the ash glaze around the rim and the foot.) Signed wooden box to be provided later (please allow some time for shipping).
Diameter 6.3cm x Diameter 6.4cm x Height 5.7cm Yoshiteru Koriki was born in Ako City, Hyogo Prefecture. Influenced by his pottery-loving father, he pursued a path in ceramics, and after graduating from high school in 1989, he studied under the master Sozan Kaneshige and his son Yuho to learn the craft. After seven years of training, he established his own climbing kiln in Shizutani, Bizen City, in 1996, and successfully held his first firing the following year. He held his first solo exhibition in Tokyo in 2000 and has held annual exhibitions since. In 1999, his work was selected for the "Exhibition of Confectionery Bowls from the North I Want to Use," and in 2002, he was selected for the "Chanoyu Plastic Arts Exhibition" for the first time.