Tsubura Kagami yunomi teacup

Small Japanese ceramic teacup by Tsubura Kagami, featuring ivory and blue tones delicately blended under a glaze covered in a fine network of crackles. Its small size is particularly well-suited for tea tasting: it allows for small servings and the refreshing of infusions throughout the tasting experience. The irregularities of the glaze, the diffused blue, and the firing marks give this cup a unique presence that evokes antique ceramics.

The ceramicist
Born in 1989 in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, Tsubura Kagami graduated in 2012 from the ceramics program at Joshibi University of Art and Design. She then worked for four years in a ceramic production studio in Kasama, before joining the Tokoname Ceramics Research Center, from which she graduated in 2018. She then established herself as an independent ceramicist in Tokoname. Her work is notably marked by her interest in antique ceramics and by Annam, a Vietnamese ceramic tradition that she reinterprets in a highly personal body of work.

The technique and decoration
Tsubura Kagami creates this cup using the Annam-de style, a Japanese technique inspired by ancient Vietnamese ceramics. The piece is shaped from red clay and then covered in a white slip. The decoration is then incised into this surface and completed with gosu, a cobalt-based pigment used for blue designs, before the application of an ash glaze and firing. The ceramicist draws her motifs directly, without preliminary sketches. During firing, the glaze and the blue pigment diffuse irregularly, creating these soft edges and variations of blue, ivory, and brown. The fine network of crackles and the marks left by the firing process reinforce the antique appearance characteristic of her work.

Place of manufacture
Japan (Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture)

Dimensions
Diameter 6 cm - Height 5 cm

Weight
68 g

Materials
Ceramic

Period
Contemporary

Care instructions
After use, empty the water and let air dry. Avoid thermal shock and abrasive products. Wipe with a soft cloth. Not suitable for dishwasher, oven, or microwave.