Bizen tea bowl

This Bizen tea bowl is the work of the master artisan Mitsuru Isezaki, who deeply loved Bizen ware and made significant contributions to the Bizen region. It is an excellent piece, featuring a delicate gold glaze applied over shiso-colored clay that produces a rich, deep hue. The flavorful yellow sesame glaze (kigoma) and the unadorned style vividly reflect Master Mitsuru's philosophy of pottery. The bowl is slightly smaller in scale with a gentle foot rim, creating an elegant atmosphere that makes it easy for women to use. Original signed wooden box (shiho-zan)
Diameter 12.2cm × Diameter 12.2cm × Height 6.9cm Born in 1934 as the eldest son of the Intangible Cultural Property holder Yozan Isezaki, Mitsuru Isezaki learned pottery from his father from a young age and later majored in sculpture at the Okayama University Special Art Course. As an authentic tea ceramic artist, he pursued the aesthetics, clay quality, and firing techniques of the Momoyama period. Depending on the work, he used both climbing kilns and medieval anagama kilns, strictly insisting on firing with split pine wood rather than electric or gas kilns. He became a full member of the Japan Kōgei Association in 1964 and received the Toyo Kaneshige Prize in 1974. In 1994, he received the Sanyo Shimbun Cultural Merit Award, and in 1998, he won the 15th Tanabe Museum of Art Grand Prize. In March of the same year, he was certified as a holder of an Okayama Prefecture-designated Important Intangible Cultural Property. He passed away in August 2011 at the age of 77.
Awards: Toyo Kaneshige Prize, Okayama Prefecture Cultural Encouragement Award, Sanyo Shimbun Award, Okayama Nichinichi Shimbun Art and Culture Merit Award, Grand Prize at the Tea Ceremony Modeling Exhibition, and many others / Invited contributor to prefectural exhibitions