Diameter: 7 inches (17.8 cm)
Probably 16th - 17th century A.D.

Poetic name: A Piece of Heaven

Provenance:

A Japanese private collection

Azuma Gallery, New York

When I first encountered this bowl, intuitively I knew I was going to acquire this masterpiece from a private Japanese collection. An inner knowingness of a blessed harmonious energy is deeply infused in it. I was stunned, and I still am, by the mysterious grayish color of an organic vegetation form, resembling a cabbage leaf shape.

The interior surface has a smooth shiny, pale white glaze with extremely distinctive thin, strong, and deep crackle lines suggesting a strong influence from the Chinese Song Dynasty - the great - Ge Ware. The smooth surface gradually merges into to a surprisingly uneven, thick, rough surface of irregular folded lines on the rim, seemingly pinched by the potter’s magical fingers. The exterior is a blend of smooth, rough, and beautiful textures … all mingled together into an amazing glaze – echoing a Japanese aesthetic referred to as “Wabi & Sabi” - translated as “Unfinished Perfection”.

This bowl was closely related to Buddhism in Japan between the 16th and 17th centuries (a private Buddhist sect which is rarely known outside of Japan).

This bowl is accompanied by a hand-woven bamboo container with a hand-written Buddhist sutra with sumi-ink in Kanji on a piece of rice-paper with burned edges attached inside the bamboo basket. The Buddhist sutra could be translated this way :

SHU JO MU HEN SEI GAN DO
BO NO MU JIN SEI GAN DAN
HO MON MU RYO SEI GAN GAKU
BUTSU DO MU JO SEI GAN JO

However innumerable all beings are
I vow to save them all
However inexhaustible delusions are
I vow to extinguish them all
However immeasurable Dharma Teachings are
I vow to master them all
However endless Buddha’s Way is
I vow to follow it