Irabo Chawan
Irabo Chawan
by Yasumoto Kajihara (b. 1962)
Irabo — named for roughness, and held for the same.
One-of-one. Signed kiri-bako included. Ships insured and tracked from Tokyo.
Questions about this chawan, or additional photographs — inquire by email. We reply within two business days.
Details
- Tradition
- Irabo (伊羅保), a Kōrai (高麗) tea bowl
- Surface
- A dry, sandy surface in a muted biwa (枇杷, loquat) register
- Foot
- A shrunken, crackled texture near the foot, associated with kairagi (梅華皮)
- Dimensions
- 13.6–13.9 cm × 5.9 cm (5.4 in × 2.3 in), diameter × height
- Condition
- Excellent — a 2019 work by the artist; no chips or restoration.
- Box
- Signed kiri-bako (桐箱, paulownia wood box)
- Reference
- IRA-3M8KP
About the work
Irabo (伊羅保) is a kind of Korean tea bowl — in Japanese, a Kōrai (高麗) chawan. The name is often said to come from touch: a rough, sandy surface that feels ira-ira, grained and uneven under the fingers.
Here, that roughness is not a flaw but the point of the work. The surface sits in a muted biwa (枇杷, loquat) register, dry and restrained, the sandy body showing beneath. Near the foot it draws into a shrunken, crackled texture associated with kairagi (梅華皮), one of the prized features of Kōrai chawan.
The form is wide and low — near fourteen centimeters across — so matcha (抹茶) spreads open across the interior. It is a chawan made less for symmetry than for contact: hand, surface, weight, and tea.
About the artist
Yasumoto Kajihara (梶原靖元, b. 1962) was born in Saga and trained in Karatsu and Kyoto before establishing his own kiln in 1995. His work is rooted in the study of ko-garatsu (古唐津, old Karatsu), the Karatsu wares of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and in the Korean tea wares that shaped the tea culture around them.
He is known for rebuilding early wares from the material up — making clay from sandstone, working with local plant and mineral materials, and studying old kiln sites in Japan and Korea. His work is shown at galleries including Kuroda Tōen in Tokyo.
Care
Rinse with warm water and dry on a soft cloth. Avoid soap, dishwasher, and prolonged soaking. Because the surface is grained and partly crackled, let the chawan dry fully, unstacked, before it is put away.
With use, the tone may slowly deepen where water, matcha, and the hand return. Let it change at its own pace.
Shipping & returns
Each chawan is shipped insured and tracked from Tokyo in ceramic-safe double-boxed packaging, within two business days of payment.
If the piece arrives damaged, we arrange a full refund or replacement. Import duties and taxes are the buyer's responsibility.
Currently shipping to the US, UK, EU, Canada, and Australia. Read our shipping policy and refund policy.
Other pieces in the room