Bizen sake bottle

This Bizen-yaki sake flask is the work of the master craftsman Mitsuru Isezaki, a man who loved Bizen ware and made immense contributions to the Bizen region. It features a remarkably rich "shiso" (perilla) colored clay texture, allowing one to savor the true essence of the "hatoba" (dove-grey) Kannon clay that Master Isezaki favored. While the scenery itself is a simple composition of "goma" (ash glaze) and "sangiri" (reduction firing), the quality of each individual element is exceptional, making this a flask packed with the quintessential charm of Bizen ware. Furthermore, golden hues appear here and there in the clay texture, creating scenery that evokes the image of rising flames. Signed wooden box (shiho-san style)
Rim 4.0cm x Body diameter 9.4cm x Body diameter 9.4cm x Height 12.2cm; Capacity 340cc Master Mitsuru Isezaki was born in 1934 as the eldest son of the Intangible Cultural Property holder Yozan Isezaki. He learned pottery techniques from his father from a young age and majored in sculpture at the Okayama University Special Fine Arts Course. A master of authentic tea ceramics, he pursued the aesthetics, clay textures, and firing methods of the Momoyama period. He distinguished between the use of climbing kilns and medieval-style anagama kilns depending on the work, insisting on firing with pine wood and never using electric or gas kilns. He became a full member of the Japan Kōgei Association in 1964 and received the Toyo Kaneshige Award in 1974. In 1994, he received the Sanyo Shimbun Cultural Achievement Award, and in 1998, he won the 15th Tanabe Museum of Art Grand Prize. In March of that same year, he was designated as a holder of the Prefecture-designated Important Intangible Cultural Property. He passed away in August 2011 at the age of 77.
Awards: Toyo Kaneshige Award, Okayama Prefecture Cultural Encouragement Award, Sanyo Shimbun Award, Okayama Nichinichi Shimbun Arts and Culture Achievement Award, Grand Prize at the Tea Ceremony Form Exhibition, and many others / Invited exhibitor at the Prefectural Exhibition