artifacts: teacup
I'm trying out a new post type: Writing about individual things that I own. To avoid writing "product reviews", I will only write about things that I've consistently used for more than one year. Instead of the excitement that comes with newly bought things, I want to focus on my relationships with these objects and reflect on the experiences I have with them.
artifact 001: Japanese yunomi teacup
I got this teacup at a market stall inside of a station on the Odakyu line ... around six years ago, I think? I remember being drawn in by the brownish-green glaze. It starts on the inside of the cup and then wraps around the outside, drawn in a single stroke. You can clearly tell that the glaze dripped down a bit when it was still wet - the top part of the stroke on the outside is very dark and becomes lighter towards the bottom. The result, fired and hardened, reminds me of a wooded ridgeline. The upper edge of the brushstroke draws the outline of the mountains, and the separations within the glaze form the individual trees of the forest. The dark green colour with brown undertones, contrasted against the pale beige of the ceramic, reminds me of sparsely painted Japanese folding screens, like the Pine Trees screen (Shōrin-zu byōbu) by Hasegawa Tōhaku.
Because of this teacup's shibui aesthetic, I use this teacup exclusively for Japanese (green) tea. For a yunomi it's on the larger side, roughly coffee mug-sized. It holds slightly less tea than a small kyusu teapot, which makes it perfect for weekday mornings. I don't use this cup every day, but when I do, I find it easy to calm down a bit and do a mini-meditation of sorts. The image of the glaze reminds me of wild nature, which often feels very far away during everyday life in Tokyo. While sipping the tea, I walking through a deep forest in the mountains, and let my thoughts drift.