Tea Bowl

This bowl by the twentieth-century master Okabe Mineo represents another type of ware that often included painterly brushwork: e-Shino, or painted Shino ware. Valued by tea masters for its uneven, bubble-pocked surface, the glaze on Shino wares partly obscures any marks made below. Here, the iron brown marks may depict bamboo stalks and leaves, a favorite motif of the eighteenth-century artist Ogata Kenzan, whose works provided inspiration for many of the ceramicists represented in this case.