Japanese Bizen Ware Ikebana Vase | Hidasuki Scarlet Cord | Cylinder Hanaire | Goma Fire Marks | Wood-Fired Yakishime | Wabi-Sabi Flower Vase

The hidasuki (緋襷) technique is Bizen's most theatrical fire effect. Where goma produces a quiet golden stippling and hi-iro produces a warm ambient glow, hidasuki draws lines — vivid, directional, unambiguous bands of crimson and scarlet that record exactly where rice straw was wrapped around the piece before it entered the kiln. The straw burns away completely during the multi-day anagama firing, but the alkaline compounds in the rice plant (potassium silicate, in particular) react with the iron-rich Bizen hiyose clay at high temperature, fusing a permanent crimson-to-orange path into the clay body along every point of contact. The resulting marks are not marks of damage or accident — they are signatures of a deliberate process, evidence that the potter wrapped this cylinder by hand, placing the straw at a specific angle and density, knowing that the fire would translate that wrapping into color.

On this cylinder, the hidasuki is exceptional. The bands are clearly defined, the color is vivid and deeply saturated, and the diagonal angle of the wrapping is consistent across the full height of the piece — suggesting careful, even application. Against the warm amber hi-iro ground, the crimson stands out with the kind of contrast that makes experienced collectors stop. Scattered across the surface: white goma specks — pine ash that flew through the kiln and adhered, adding the third texture to the three-layer surface. And at the body's center, the familiar Bizen yōhen (窯変): a large dark oval where localized reduction concentrated the iron to a deeper tone. Three fire effects, one cylinder.

The tsutsu-gata (筒形, "cylindrical form") is the standard Bizen hanaire (花入れ, flower-entry vessel) for formal ikebana. Its proportions — a vertical ratio of roughly 3:1 height to diameter — create the necessary depth for root support while maintaining visual lightness. The open, unglazed interior allows a kenzan (剣山, flower frog) to be placed directly on the unglazed clay base. Bizen clay is ideal for cut flowers because its slight porosity keeps water cooler than glazed vessels, extending the life of fresh-cut stems. For dried arrangements — the more contemporary Western use — the cylinder's vertical proportion creates the ideal frame for a single dramatic branch, a bunch of dried grasses, or a tall sculptural stem.

[Dimensions: H approx. [X]cm, mouth diameter approx. [X]cm — please measure and add before listing]

No applied glaze. No painted decoration. Signed or unsigned — [check base and add]. The surface the buyer receives is the surface the fire made: unalterable, irreplaceable, fully Bizen. Ships carefully from Hanoi, Vietnam with full insurance.