Sparkling Oil-spot Sake Cup

Kyoto-based Kamada Kōji is the modern master of the Tenmoku glaze, the deep black and brown glaze that originated in Song dynasty China (960–1279). The name Tenmoku is the Japanese pronunciation of Mount Tianmu (Tiānmù Shān天目山), a mountain in southern China where many Japanese monks went to study Buddhism. When they returned to Japan they also brought back “whipped tea” drinking and black-glazed tea wares from a variety of southern kilns, all of which came to be known in Japan as Tenmoku wares.

This cup displays one of Kamada Kōji’s signature variations on the Tenmoku glaze, an iridescent silver color with a speckled pattern known as “oil-spot”. Developed in Song dynasty China (960–1279), the oil-spot glaze is similar to “hare’s fur” in that it results from layering glazes high in iron oxide. To achieve the oil-spot effect seen here, however, bubbles of iron-rich glaze rise to the surface and crystallize during cooling, leaving a shiny pattern reminiscent of oil spots floating on water.