Mentori (Faceted) Matcha Bowl
A matcha bowl featuring a distinctive faceted design. While ideal for traditional tea ceremonies, it also serves beautifully as everyday tableware.
Size: Ø10.5 × H8.1 cm
*As each piece is individually handmade, there may be slight variations from the item shown in the images.
*Please also note that the appearance and colour of the product may vary depending on the lighting.
About : Touzan Kimura
Born in Inbe into Tokeido, one of Bizen’s six traditional kiln families with over 600 years of history, Touzan Kimura trained under his father and became the 26th-generation Touzan Kimura in 2021.
His tea utensils, sake vessels, flower vessels and sculptural objects combine family tradition with forms suited to contemporary life. Working without glaze and using traditional climbing-kiln firing, he celebrates the natural colours and textures created by clay and flame. His Hidasuki pieces feature distinctive red markings formed by wrapping the clay in straw before firing.
Having also studied at Escola Massana in Barcelona, Kimura shares Bizen ware and Japanese tea culture through international exhibitions and tea ceremonies.
STYLE & APPROACH
He makes both traditional work - tea ceramics and the intricate saikumono modelling that is his family's speciality - and pieces shaped for contemporary living.
SPECIALITY
Tea utensils, flower vessels, sculptural objects
What is BIZEN WARE?
Bizen ware comes from Imbe in Bizen City, Okayama — one of Japan's Six Ancient Kilns. Each piece is shaped by hand from local clay and fired with no glaze and no painted decoration, so the clay itself speaks. Fired with pine wood for 7–10 days at over 1,200 °C, it becomes a hard, dense stoneware — and no two pieces are ever alike.
The fired surface — yaki
Without glaze, every colour and pattern comes from how flame, ash and charcoal touch the piece in the kiln. Potters call these natural effects keshiki - “landscapes”.
- 窯変（Yōhen）: Buried in charcoal on the kiln floor, away from flame and air, the clay turns grey, dark grey or bluish.
- 胡麻（Goma）: Pine ash settles on the piece like sesame seeds; where it melts and runs, it is called tamadare.
- 棧切（Sangiri）: Where ash and charcoal cut off the air, grey to blue-black tones form against the redbrown clay.
- 緋襷（Hidasuki）: Straw wrapped around the piece reacts with iron in the clay, leaving scarlet lines.