Nezumi Shino Chawan Tea Bowl | Showa Studio | Gray Iron-Wash Glaze | Mino Tradition

Within the Shino family (志野焼) of Mino ceramics, most collectors know two types: the thick white feldspar Shiro-Shino (白志野) and the iron-painted E-Shino (絵志野) with its landscape brushwork. But there is a third type, rarer, quieter, and more demanding: Nezumi Shino (鼠志野 — Mouse Gray Shino), where the potter applies an iron-oxide wash over the raw clay body before glazing, then covers it with the same white feldspar Shino glaze. In the kiln, the iron burns upward through the feldspar, staining the white to gray — a cool, blue-suffused gray that Japanese connoisseurs named for the color of a mouse in winter light, nezumi (鼠). The resulting surface is neither the warmth of Hagi nor the purity of white Shino. It is something in between: iron and stone, fog and distance.

This chawan (茶碗 — matcha tea bowl) presents Nezumi Shino at full expression. The exterior glaze is the characteristic iron-gray, ranging from blue-gray at the shoulder to a warmer stone-gray at the body, with the entire surface animated by dense chiteki (地鉄 — ground-iron) spotting: hundreds of iron pinpoints where the oxide has broken through the feldspar surface during the high-temperature firing, each one a tiny eruption of the iron beneath. In the lower body, a hadaka (肌 — "bare skin") zone where the iron wash concentrated unevenly shows the white feldspar below — the glaze revealing its own interior. Under the gray, dark brushwork marks are faintly visible — abstracted, diagonal, half-absorbed into the surface — the iron underpainting showing through the overlying wash, like writing seen through translucent paper.

The interior is fully glazed in the same iron-gray, with chiteki spotting continuing uniformly across the bowl's inner surface. The rim is organically irregular — pressed and shaped by hand, not finished on the wheel — its undulating edge creating a slightly different silhouette from every angle. The base reveals the iron-bearing Mino clay in warm red-brown, with a wide, rough foot ring characteristic of the Shino throwing tradition. No signature or kiln mark is present.

For the tea ceremony practitioner, Nezumi Shino holds matcha with a visual neutrality that few glazes can match: the gray surface neither competes with nor detracts from the vivid green of whisked tea. For the collector, it is the rarest member of the Shino family — less discovered than white Shino or e-Shino, more philosophically interesting than either, and the type that most rewards extended looking. The brushwork beneath the glaze is there; you simply have to look for it.

Very good condition. Glaze intact; surface texture, spotting, and crawl zone are authentic fired features. No chips or repairs. Studio piece, Showa period, c. 1960–1990