A Kogaratsu tea bowl, fired in the early Edo period. The bowl is shaped in a tenmoku form, with the wall sharply inflected beneath the rim. An iron-rich glaze covers the interior and extends partway down the exterior, over which a single stream of straw-ash glaze has been streaked. The lower section is left largely unglazed, revealing the clay body and preserving traces of vigorous trimming by the potter’s blade.

While the Fujinokawachi kiln is the best-known centre for the production of Chōsen-Karatsu style, the present bowl is thought to have been made at the nearby Mutabaru kiln. Within the corpus of early Karatsu ceramics, this glazing technique is most commonly found on bottles, flasks, and other enclosed vessels; its application to a tea bowl is comparatively rare. The pale stream of straw-ash glaze cutting across the dark brown ground creates a striking contrast, evoking the quiet luminosity of a cloud crossing a night sky.

A firing crack at the rim has been repaired with Kintsugi. A small chip is present on the footring. The bowl is accompanied by a silk shifuku and housed in a wooden box inscribed “Chōsen-Karatsu Tenmoku Chawan” (朝鮮唐津 天目茶碗).