Vintage Japanese Black Glaze Yunomi Teacup, Hand Thrown Stoneware Cup, Kuro Yu Pottery

Black-glazed Japanese ceramics occupy a special place in the history of tea culture. Since the Momoyama period, potters in the Seto-Mino region perfected a technique called hikidashi-guro — "drawn-out black" — in which a piece is pulled from the kiln while its iron-rich glaze is still molten, then cooled rapidly to fix a deep, glossy black unlike anything achieved through normal cooling. The resulting surface has often been compared to fine lacquerware: dense, dark, and quietly luminous rather than flat matte black.

This vintage cup carries that same lineage of kuro-yu (black glaze) craftsmanship. Turned on the wheel and finished by hand, its cylindrical form has a gently undulating rim — not a mechanical circle, but the kind of soft asymmetry that only comes from a potter's fingers shaping wet clay. Across the body, small pitting and pinholes break up the glaze's surface, remnants of gas bubbles or ash contact during firing, the kind of "kiln-given" texture that collectors of Japanese pottery seek out rather than avoid. Inside, the glaze pools slightly at the base, catching light differently than the walls — a small detail worth noticing when the cup is held up rather than set down.

Flip the piece over, and there's a further point of interest: a small mark has been incised by hand into the unglazed foot ring. In Japanese ceramics, such a mark can be a kakihan (花押) — a personal cipher many potters used in place of a formal signature — though it can also simply be a workshop or firing-batch mark. Without an accompanying signature or maker's record, we're presenting this honestly as an unattributed hand-marked piece rather than guessing at a specific kiln or artist name; what's certain is that someone, generations ago, wanted this cup to carry a trace of its own identity.

Sized and shaped for everyday use as a yunomi teacup, it holds tea, cold brew, or sake equally well, and doubles nicely as a small vessel for a single stem or as a brush holder on a writing desk. For collectors of Japanese folk pottery (mingei) and black-glaze tradition alike, it offers a genuine, well-worn piece of that lineage — imperfect by design, and better for it.

Shipped with care from our studio in Hanoi. Age-related characteristics (glaze pitting, minor rim irregularities, firing marks) are part of the piece's authentic history, not defects.