Tobe Porcelain Sake Cup - Arabesque

Tobe-yaki, a style of famous white porcelain made in Tobe, Ehime Prefecture has been produced since 1775. This sake cup was made in one of the oldest and most well-established kilns in Tobe, Baizangama. Producing the porcelain, the clay bodies are formed by hand by expert potters then air-dried for several days before the initial bisque firing at temperatures over 900 degrees Celsius in a noborigama, a climbing kiln built with large, heat-resistant bricks, that slightly expand heated. Once the porcelain cooled down, the blue coloured patterns are made with an underglaze method using gosu, an indigo blue pigment made of a mixture of cobalt oxide and other components. The pigment is then covered in a transparent glaze and fired again at over 1200 degrees Celsius. The red colours are made using an overglaze method, most often using red enamel paint on top of the fired glaze. Tobe-yaki has been highly praised by Yanagi Sōetsu, the founder of the Mingei (folk craft) movement in Japan, as well as famous potters such as Hamada Shōji, for its utilitarian beauty and characteristic, hand-painted decorations. These patterns are drawn using a technique called tsuketate-kaki, contourless drawing, whereby the outlines are not drawn, and the thickness of lines is a pure expression of brush strokes.

Not microwave or dishwasher safe.

Size: H4.5 cm x Ø6 cm