Bizen-ware crane-neck sake bottle

This is a newly kiln-fired Bizen crane-neck sake bottle by Takashi Soga, who challenges the aesthetic of antiquity by recreating the same environment in which Old Bizen was fired. To replicate the style of the Old Bizen period, he avoids the use of firebricks and other modern materials, firing the pieces in a kiln where modern common sense regarding thermal efficiency does not apply; consequently, it displays a superior quality of clay that transcends modern beauty and approaches that of Old Bizen. The refined hidasuki (fire-cord) pattern, backed by the excellence of the clay, has turned a shade closer to deep crimson than scarlet, tracing a beautifully austere path across the azuki-bean colored surface. The elegant crane-neck form produces a pleasant "kokko-kko" sound when pouring sake, allowing one to enjoy the ultimate wabi-sabi embodied by Old Bizen crane-neck bottles with all five senses, including sight, taste, and sound.

View the blog post about Takashi Soga's sake bottles Includes signed wooden box (shiho-zan style)
Rim 4.6cm × Body 9.0cm × Body 8.9cm × Height 15.3cm; Capacity approx. 270cc Takashi Soga was born in Tokyo in 1984. He studied under Jun Isezaki in 2009 and built his own kiln in Kuku-i, Bizen City in 2012. He began his independent pottery career in 2013.