Black glaze Yugetsu tea bowl by Suwa Sozan

Width: 12.1cm Height: 8.2cm

This "Black Glazed Yugetsu Tea Bowl" is a tea bowl filled with extremely tranquil and spiritual beauty, created by Suwa Sozan IV as a way to set himself apart from celadon porcelain, using a jet-black glaze symbolizing the dark night and a shape with subtle inflections. As the name "Yugetsu" suggests, the "moon" in this piece is not the shining full moon, but the invisible new moon - in other words, it is a poetic vessel that expresses "the unseen," "the missing," and "the sign of fullness."

The Abyss of Black Glaze - Reflecting the Night on Vessels

The glaze is a black glaze that contains a lot of iron, and although it is called black, its appearance is not uniform. The slight silvery-white spots that appear on the surface are remnants of kiln changes that occur during firing, and look like traces of light floating in the night sky like stars. This pointillist shine avoids the monotony of the black glaze and creates a cosmic depth.

Furthermore, the way this glaze changes its appearance depending on the angle of the light is truly what could be described as the "color of night," symbolizing the quiet power lurking in the darkness. If celadon is a "vessel that harbors light," then black glaze is a "vessel that embraces darkness," and it is this contrast that demonstrates the breadth of Sozan's creative world.

The meaning behind the name "Yuzuki"

Part of the rim is intentionally slightly indented, which is the origin of the name "Yugetsu" (Playing Moon). This indentation is not simply a decorative accent, but a highly poetic design that evokes the image of the moon hiding among the clouds or a crescent moon suddenly appearing on a dark night. While it resembles a crescent moon, it does not signify "incompleteness," but rather alludes to the true nature of the moon as a "changing entity" and "waxing and waxing."

This depression is also designed so that your fingers will naturally touch it when holding the bowl in your palm, making it an aesthetic design that exquisitely combines practicality and symbolism. Touching it creates the sensation of "touching the moon," further deepening the afterglow of appreciation during the tea ceremony.

Functional beauty and spirituality as tea ceremony utensils

The inside of this tea bowl is also covered in black glaze, which makes the green of the matcha stand out even more vividly. The green of the matcha that spreads out against the black is like dewdrops falling in the night sky, and you can feel the aesthetic sense that captures the "poetry of nature and the universe" in the moment of drinking tea.

The soft curves from the base to the base of the handle provide both ease of grip and stability, and the handle feels comfortable in your hand as you use it. The design philosophy, which aims to become one with the user's sensibilities, is evident in every detail.

Black and Moon Symbolism - Eastern Thought

In the East, the moon symbolizes beauty as something that is sometimes imperfect, that is, the philosophy that "elegance resides in imperfection," while black has been used to express spiritual qualities such as infinity, tolerance, and silence. By fusing these two elements, Suwa Sozan's work embodies the pinnacle of Japanese aesthetics, which finds beauty in the invisible and the unspeakable.

In particular, this work, which strongly resonates with the idea of ​​"praise of shadows," is an attempt to sublimate into the form of a vessel the beauty that cannot be seen unless light shines on it, yet is certainly there.

A vessel embracing the moon in the darkness

The Black Glazed Yugetsu Tea Bowl is by no means a piece intended to be flashy or show off skill. Rather, it is a vessel filled with deep spirituality, contemplating the silence hidden behind the light and the perfection that resides in what is missing.

While thinking of the moon floating quietly in the dark night, we make and drink tea. There is a certain tranquility and aesthetic sense that is being lost in modern times. This world of black glaze, dedicated by Suwa Sozan, gently invites us into a poetic universe of the moon and darkness.