Ao-Hagi Blue Serving Bowl by Seigan Yamane, Contemporary Hagi Ware, Japan

A serving bowl in contemporary Hagi ware (萩焼), thrown and glazed in blue. The surface is ao-hagi (青萩), the blue Hagi glaze — running from a dark iron ground to a pooled cobalt-slate blue, lighter across the rim and gathering in the well. Fine crazing (kannyū, 貫入) webs the surface, the mark of Hagi stoneware. The bowl is the work of Seigan Yamane (山根清玩), a Hagi potter in Yamaguchi, Japan, credited with developing this blue glaze around 2002. The rim is thrown with a soft lobed lip. The foot ring is left unglazed, showing the pale grey Hagi clay beneath. Hagi ware stoneware, ao-hagi blue glaze. 18 cm diameter × 7.5 cm high. Wheel-thrown, bare foot ring, potter's seal impressed to the base. Condition - No chips, cracks or restoration; light crazing consistent with Hagi ware. Each bowl is thrown by hand, and the ao-hagi glaze settles differently on every one — no two surfaces are identical. Presented by Renaras, an Amsterdam atelier.