Bizen tea cup

This Bizen teacup is by Takashi Soga, an artist who challenges the aesthetic of antiquity by recreating the environment in which Old Bizen pottery was fired. To replicate the style of the Old Bizen period, he does not use firebricks or other modern materials, resulting in a kiln where modern common sense regarding thermal efficiency does not apply; consequently, the work displays a supreme clay quality that transcends modern beauty and approaches that of Old Bizen. In this unique kiln, which lacks both a chimney and shelves or firebricks, reactions occur that have never been seen before: an ink-like black surface interspersed with silver and deep black granules, transforming into a texture reminiscent of granite. Unlike blue Bizen created in a salt kiln or black Bizen created with slip, this granite-like surface possesses an allure that makes it hard to believe it is ceramic the more one looks at it, appearing as fantastical as snow falling in the deep darkness of a midwinter night. Paper box
Diameter 7.9cm × Diameter 7.6cm × Height 9.5cm Takashi Soga was born in Tokyo in 1984. He apprenticed under Jun Isezaki in 2009 and built his kiln in Kuku-i, Bizen City, in 2012. He became independent and began his pottery career in 2013.