Recently a friend sent me three wonderful books as a gift,
one of them was a large folio on Kawai Kanjiro and the binding is all handmade Japanese
paper. Refusing payment, even for the postage I wondered what could I sent to
offset this debt as we have something of a reciprocal back and forth going on,
more of my pots seemed a bit insignificant and then along came a chawan. As I was
searching the auctions, I came across what I thought was exactly the right
chawan; exotic yohen temmoku surface, just a bit on the small side and what the
dealer assured me was a bowl that was not too heavy. The recipient of the bowl
is an avid tea drinker, putting his pots to hard use and he is rather
particular about size, weight and of course aesthetics. Several weeks later the
bowl arrived here and was shipped off to its new owner. The chawan is by Ii
Koji who I know very little about though I have seen several chawan, a Kuan
style celadon vase and misc. guinomi, yunomi and small plates. The surfaces are
somewhat similar but I thought this one worked quite well among those that I have seen. With any luck this
will find favor at its new home, be used hard, put away dry and enjoyed for
many years to come.
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