Bizen-Style Footed Vase

2000s

American

Sold 2/2/2022

Wide mouth vase with an elegant foot and body. Decorated only with naturally occurring fly ash and a finish typical of wood-fired ceramics. Three “botamochi” indicate how the piece was placed in the kiln; on its side, which when turned upright give the fly-ash drips an appearance of sweeping across the vessel.

Bizen ware was traditionally produced in and around the village of Imbe in Bizen province, from where it received its name. Bizen was considered one of the Six Ancient Kilns by the scholar Koyama Fujio. It experienced its peak during the Momoyama period of the 16th century. Bizen is characterized by significant hardness due to high temperature firing; its earthen-like, reddish-brown color; absence of glaze, although it may contain traces of molten ash resembling glaze; and markings resulting from wood-burning kiln firing.

The firing process lasts for about one hundred hours, the artists continuously feeding and stoking the fires until the interior temperatures of the kilns reach 2000-plus degrees Fahrenheit. Along with this extreme heat, many other elements affect the outcome of each piece: clay; season of firing; condition and genus of wood; placement in the kiln; and glazes. And then there is fate; many vessels do not survive the kiln; of those that do, there are never two that emerge exactly alike.