An Obori Soma ware Soba-choko cup fired in the late Edo period. In the soba choko of the same area, they are mostly all green glaze or splashed green glaze on white background, but this piece is a rare example with green glaze only on the exterior, and the interior is a white glaze with a greenish tint. The green glaze gradation evokes the area’s scenery surrounded by gently rolling hills.

Obori Soma ware began in the third year of Genroku (1690) in Obori-mura (current Namie-Cho), Futaba-gun, Fukushima Prefecture. The pottery industry was expanded in the area and the teabowls with horse designs and the teapot with landscape designs became popular and were reconstructed even after the decline of the Boshin War (1868-69). However, many kilns were forced to evacuate outside the village due to the Great East Japan Earthquake and the nuclear accident (2011). Currently, about half of the kilns are working on rebuilding the kilns in various places.

There are minor chips on the base and two hairlines on the rim but no other defects.