Bizen Hidasuki tea bowl

This Bizen-hidasuki tea bowl is a work by the late master Mitsuru Isezaki, a craftsman who loved Bizen ware and made immense contributions to the Bizen region. True to the Isezaki family's reputation for excellence in hidasuki (fire-cord) firing, this piece features a profound, mugwort-colored clay body adorned with a magnificent Momoyama-style hidasuki pattern. Among unglazed Bizen pieces, hidasuki exposes the bare surface of the clay—avoiding even the natural glaze—and this bowl showcases the seasoned expertise of Master Mitsuru, who possessed an intimate knowledge of the quality of the clay and the technical brilliance required to draw it out in the kiln. Although created in his youth, the piece already reveals glimpses of his mature ceramic technique; the soft rise of the body leading to a slightly constricted mouth is exactly that of his later years. Conversely, the foot is highly expressive of his youth, crafted with considerable height and giving a powerful impression. Signed wooden box (shiho-san style)
Diameter 12.2cm × Diameter 12.1cm × Height 8.4cm Master Mitsuru Isezaki was born in 1934 as the eldest son of the Intangible Cultural Property holder Yoza Isezaki. He learned pottery from his father from a young age and majored in sculpture at the special art department of Okayama University. As an authentic practitioner of tea ceramics, he pursued Momoyama-style modeling, clay quality, and firing techniques. He distinguished between the use of climbing kilns and medieval-style anagama kilns depending on the work, and remained dedicated to firing with pine wood, eschewing electric or gas kilns. He became a full member of the Japan Kōgei Association in 1964 and received the Kaneshige Toyo Award in 1974. In 1994, he received the Sanyo Shimbun Cultural Merit Award, and in 1998, the 15th Tanabe Museum of Art Grand Prize. In March of that same year, he was designated as a holder of an Okayama Prefectural Important Intangible Cultural Property. He passed away in August 2011 at the age of 77.
Awards: Kaneshige Toyo Award, 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 / Prefectural Exhibition invitee