Bold Strokes: A Tea Bowl Labelled Hamada Shōji, 1940

Straight-Sided Tea Bowl with Iron Painting

The walls of this tea bowl rise almost straight from a low foot, flaring a little towards the rim. Over a pale grey-buff glaze, a few bold dark brown strokes make a motif like bent grass or cane. Thinner olive lines run down the body between them.

The bowl is labelled as the work of Hamada Shōji (濱田庄司, 1894 to 1978) and dated 1940. We have not found a museum record for it, so its title, date and holder are unconfirmed. The photograph appears to come from an older printed source.

Iron over a Ground

The dark strokes look like tetsue (鉄絵), iron painting, applied over a ground glaze or slip. Hamada named this way of working in his own titles. The National Crafts Museum, for example, holds a 1961 tea bowl of his titled 地掛鉄絵草文茶碗, "tea bowl with grass design in iron over a ground". That is a different bowl, but the approach is the same.

First Group of Living National Treasures

On 15 February 1955, fifteen years after the date given for this bowl, Hamada was among the first potters recognised as holders of an Important Intangible Cultural Property, the status known as Living National Treasure. His field was Mingei pottery (民芸陶器).

For more on Hamada, see a 1941 bowl from Mashiko, a 1942 tea cup and a 1947 vase with red overglaze.

This bowl was made to be drunk from, whatever its brushwork. Unpainted cups and bowls at EngiCrafts share that purpose but not the brush: the pieces we bring rely on a quiet glaze or the marks of a wood firing.