The bowl measures 7 ¾” diameter and is 3” high at the rim. There is an impressed potter’s mark on the base; however, the glaze ran over the mark and it cannot be translated. The bottom rim is unglazed and shows signs of wear. The piece is in excellent condition with no cracks, hairlines or restorations.

Seto ware. pottery was (and is still) made in the city and nearby areas of modern Aichi prefecture. The Seto area was the center of pottery manufacture in the Kamakura period; At the end of the Muromachi period the center of the pottery manufacture moved to nearby Mino. At that time, wares made in the area from Seto to Mino were called setoyaki. In the early Edo period, some pottery manufacture moved back to Seto. In the Meiji period, setoyaki adapted Western techniques, gaining great popularity. It utilizes an iron-rich wood-ash glaze and is reduction fired at a high temperature to produce a celadon-like texture and bone color; in an oxygen-rich kiln, the minerals in the clay and glaze create a distinctive opaque yellow glaze.

Folk pottery consists of various kinds of domestic wares which possess a natural dignity that stems from the combination of the materials used to make and fire the pottery, the craftsman’s technical skill, and the use to which such pottery is put. Folk-craft products or “mingei,” of which this tile is representative, are objects used by common people. These commonplace, functional artifacts are endowed with a beauty directly connected with their utility – a beauty that is humble, unassuming and never pretentious.

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