Hikidashi-Guro Five-Sided Matcha Bowl

The Hikidashi-guro Five-Sided Matcha Bowl carries the deep, velvety darkness of Bizen ware transformed by fire and sudden cold. Its surface is rich with the intensity of a technique that pushes both clay and craft to their limits.

From a pentagonal foot, the form unfolds into five softly flowing panels, each one stretching and curving organically upward to shape a vessel that feels both structured and alive. In conceiving this design, the artist Mori Toshiaki drew upon the philosophical balance of yin and yang: straight lines embody yin, while curves represent yang; the cool, subdued tone signifies yin, while the odd number of the pentagon's five sides represents yang. In this piece, these opposites are brought into harmony within a single unified form.

The hikidashi-guro technique, a method with roots in Seto and Mino ware, was long considered outside the traditions of Bizen. Because Bizen clay is particularly fine-grained, it is inherently vulnerable to sudden thermal change, making the process prone to cracking; for this reason, the technique was historically seen as incompatible with, even taboo within, the Bizen tradition. Yet after approximately five years of dedicated experimentation, Mori developed the skill to achieve his intended surface effects with consistency and intention, producing results that were once thought impossible in this clay.

The process itself is elemental. The vessel is drawn from the kiln at the height of firing, while the clay still glows with heat, and plunged into a bed of rice husks to cool rapidly. This sudden transition from extreme heat to smothered darkness arrests the surface in a state of deep, lustrous black.

Mori brings together a profound respect for Bizen tradition with the willingness to work at its edges, finding in that tension a beauty entirely his own.

Mori Toshiaki

Entre los estimados linajes conocidos como Bizen Rokusei, o Seis Hornos Antiguos de Cerámica Bizen, el Horno Hozan destaca como una institución venerable. Mori Toshiaki, sucesor de la 19.ª generación, mantiene con maestría esta rica tradición, a la vez que explora nuevas posibilidades. Compaginando sus responsabilidades en el horno con sus intereses artísticos personales, Mori realiza una extensa investigación y explora enfoques innovadores tanto en las técnicas de moldeado como de cocción, ampliando los límites de la cerámica Bizen.

Bizen Ware

La cerámica Bizen es un tipo de gres tradicional producido en la zona de Imbe, en la prefectura de Okayama. Es una de las cerámicas más antiguas de Japón y se elabora mediante la técnica yakishime , en la que las piezas se cuecen a altas temperaturas sin esmaltado para que sean duraderas y resistentes al agua.

La cerámica Bizen se denomina "el arte de la arcilla y el fuego" por los exquisitos colores y patrones producidos por las llamas del horno, y se caracteriza por su diseño minimalista wabi sabi.