Sekki Chawan

Technique

Rokuro (wheel-thrown), sekki (炻器, sintered stoneware) — bisque firing followed by two main firings of approximately forty hours each at 1270°C in a gas kiln

Applied glaze

None

Surface

Color emerges from the clay body itself through controlled oxidation and reduction firing

Dimensions

13.5–13.6 cm × 7.8 cm (5.3 in × 3.1 in), diameter × height

Condition

Excellent — recent work by the artist; no chips or restoration.

Box

Signed kiri-bako (paulownia wood box)

Reference

SEK-P9R2T

Sekki (炻器, sintered stoneware) is fired hotter than earthenware and lower than porcelain. The body vitrifies, but the unglazed surface keeps the quiet tactility of raw earth — opaque, dense, and warm to the hand. The clay used here comes from Izumo, Shimane, a region of the San'in coast where earth and fire have shaped pottery for centuries.

The maker, Ken Mihara, believes that any clay holds a memory of color, and that careful firing brings the memory forward. Oxygen-rich flames raise warm browns and pinks; reduction firing pulls cooler greys, blues, and lavenders out of the same body. No glaze is added. What the eye reads as color is the clay itself, transformed by the way it was held in the flame.

Ken Mihara (三原研, b. 1958) studied civil engineering before turning to clay, then trained briefly under the mingei potter Kenji Funaki before going his own way in 1985. He works exclusively in sekki (sintered stoneware), allowing color to emerge from the clay body itself through carefully controlled oxidation and reduction firings.

He received the Japan Ceramic Society Award (2008), widely regarded as one of the most important awards in contemporary Japanese ceramics, and the Grand Prize at the Chanoyu-no-Zōkei Exhibition twice (2001, 2008). In 2005 he received a Tomo Museum grant to travel in Italy for six months. His work is held in more than forty public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the V&A, LACMA, and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.

Rinse with warm water and dry on a soft cloth. Avoid soap, dishwasher, and prolonged soaking.

With use, the unglazed surface may take on a softer depth where the hand returns. The surface reads warm or cool depending on the time of day. It is not finished when it leaves the kiln; it is finished by the years that follow.

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.

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