🎎 Modern Japanese Studio Sake Cup with Flowing Ash-Celadon Glaze – Japan Antique Roadshow

A luminous studio-fired sake cup, alive with molten motion and deep, reflective glaze. At first glance, its watery blue-green surface evokes traditional celadon. But this is no serene museum relic—it's a bold, contemporary interpretation where glaze chemistry and gravity conspire to create an unrepeatable harmony of form and color.

Crafted in the lineage of modern kiln experimentation—perhaps influenced by the flowing aesthetics of Agano-yaki or the vibrancy of Green Oribe—this cup features a complex layering of high-silica ash glaze and iron-rich Tenmoku browns. The surface gleams like a mountain spring under early morning light: earthy and wild, with emerald pooling at the lip, a mineral shimmer near the base, and a natural asymmetry that recalls wood-fired tradition.

The interior swirl suggests intentional movement, as though poured with controlled abandon. One small chip along the rim suggests it was either rarely used—or loved until its final pour. In either case, the blemish only enhances the vessel’s tactile spirit. It is a celebration of glaze over geometry, of spontaneity over symmetry.

📏 Approximate dimensions

• Height: 4.8 cm

• Diameter at lip: 6.2 cm

• Weight: 95g

• Condition: Very good overall; single minor rim chip (visible in photo)

• Period: Modern, likely late Heisei to Reiwa

• Glaze: Layered ash glaze with celadon/Oribe hues and Tenmoku-style iron pooling

• Origin: Japan (studio-made)

Curated in Shizuoka City by Kurt Bell, this piece channels the soul of Japan’s studio pottery renaissance—where tradition flows freely into the vessel of now.