Formed as a compact, asymmetrical tea bowl, this work brings a pale Hagi glaze over a body cut into shifting planes. Dark iron-toned seams trace the ridges, while warm clay remains visible at the sculptural foot. The irregular rim and open interior keep the mass from feeling closed.

Kaneta Masanao is an eighth-generation Hagi ceramist whose training in sculpture led him away from wheel-thrown symmetry. He named his kurinuki method in 1989: a dense block of clay is shaped from the outside and carved open from within. The resulting ridges are not surface decoration; they are the structure of the vessel.

The bowl is built through a tension between weight and release. Its exterior retains the memory of a compressed block, yet the carved interior creates a quiet cavity. White, smoke-grey and faint blush passages move across the planes, making each turn feel different without disturbing the overall calm.

We selected this tea bowl for the coherence between body, foot and glaze. The broad, carved support is not an added pedestal; it continues the same physical logic as the bowl above it. Dark ridge lines give the pale surface structure, while the asymmetry remains controlled rather than incidental.

It has no single fixed front. Seen in rotation, the bowl shifts from a broad pale field to darker cuts, exposed clay and the carved underside. That changing balance makes it both a functional chawan and a small sculptural presence for close, repeated viewing.