A porcelain tea bowl of Tobe ware, fired in the late Edo period. The vessel forms a simple bowl shape, its exterior encircled by bands of cobalt-blue lines that run regularly yet retain a certain relaxed, free-form quality. The glaze surface, slightly soft in tone, is covered with fine crackle, and together with its warm colouration, lends the porcelain a familiarity closer to that of pottery.

Tobe ware is a porcelain tradition centred in Tobe, Iyo Province (present-day Ehime Prefecture). After repeated experimentation—undertaken with the assistance of potters from the Nagayo kilns of Hizen—the kiln succeeded in firing porcelain in 1777. This bowl appears to date from that formative period. While clearly inheriting the character of Hizen porcelain, the movement of the brush in the ringed decoration and the glaze tone reveal the distinctive warmth that would become characteristic of Tobe. Its notably weighty feel in the hand further underscores the kiln’s early stage of development.

The condition is excellent, with no conspicuous defects. It is housed in a wooden box inscribed Hakuji Ai-dōhimo Chawan (“White porcelain tea bowl with indigo ring decoration”).