Sanage ash-glazed high footed cup

Sanage Kiln began producing "glazed pottery" with ash or green glazes in the 9th century, and among these, pottery that was coated with ash glaze and fired to a whitish gray color was called "shirashi."

This work is a tall white porcelain cup. It is a standard shape for sueki, an ancient pottery that existed before the white porcelain era, but surprisingly, it is not often seen in white porcelain.

The plate is large with gently rising edges. The proportions are beautiful, and even just this curve seems to reflect the graceful aesthetic sense of the Heian period.

On the other hand, if you look at the legs, you can see that they are delicately made with a sense of tension. Because porcelain was originally made as a replacement for metalware, the potters sought to create sharp shapes like those found in metalwork, and this can be seen in the details.

The inside has a pool of ash glaze and is a lustrous pale green color, while the outside shows the fine grain of the white porcelain clay and its characteristic gray-white color.

It is normal for ancient pottery like this to have scratches and repairs. Especially with this shape, even a large scratch would be valuable, but miraculously, this piece only has a 1.5 cm repair on the edge. It has been restored very carefully and skillfully. The previous owner must have also highly valued this piece.

In the dictionary " Wamyo Ruijusho （和名類聚抄）" compiled in the mid-Heian period, it is introduced as "Shinoutsuhamono（之乃宇豆波毛乃）." Porcelain ware. It combines the simplicity that could be called the original form of "vessel" with the elegance typical of the Heian period.