Guinomi Cup Kohiki Style

This piece was handcrafted by Kenji Tayama, a highly regarded contemporary ceramicist who works in the Japanese pottery town of Kasama. It’s warm, solid, deceptively modest in design and intended for everyday life.

Tayama aims to make pottery expressing nature and the soil, describing his style as ‘yōhen’ or ‘changed by the flame’. Each piece is pine-wood fired over five days in an anagama style kiln and will have subtle differences, an expression of how the flame has passed by and between the work.

A guinomi is a type of sake cup, ‘gui’ refers to the sound of gulping and ‘nomi’ means to drink. So you could call it a cup for gulping down sake! It’s also suitable for drinking tea or as a small dipping bowl.

This guinomi has been crafted in the kohiki style, an iron-rich clay body with a light slip and translucent glaze that creates a tactile, earthy texture. It originated from Korean potters and became popular in Japan with the samurai classes in the 1500's. The result is a powdery finish, with wisps of blush pink gohon 御本 tones coming through and a crackle effect. Kohiki ceramics are said to undergo three changes as they age with use, known as ‘keshiki'.

The blush colour comes from the high iron content of the Kasama clay. The piece has a soft lustre and warmth to make serving food so pretty.

The piece is faceted so that you can feel the maker’s hand, with a natural glaze that flows and accumulates on the lines.

It’s rare to find such a fine example of Kasama pottery outside of Japan, drawing upon its long and distinguished history.