ORIGIN; JAPAN

Illustrated is the inside view of a Madara-Karatsu chawan that shows off the buttery softness of the glaze which is randomly punctuated, like a night's sky with iron erupting out of the surface and creating streaks thanks to gravity. This chawan was made by scholar and potter Koyama Fujio during the 1960s and was a gift to then Director of the Freer Gallery, John Alexander Pope. Besides this Koyama chawan, Pope collected a number of pots, some gifts, some purchases which included Kawai Kanjiro, Hamada Shoji, Koyama Fujio and an upcoming star at the time, Okabe Mineo of which many of his pieces were then collected by a fellow curator at the Freer and a friend of Pope's, after his death in 1982, Martin Amt. This chawan was collected from Mr. Amt in the early 2000s along with several other pieces and though such provenance is somewhat rare as one usually just ends up with a pot, "origin; Japan" it is interesting to note the hands this chawan traveled through from its "making and baking" to the present day.