Mystery chawan!

[chamekke]

Hello all,

I bought this chawan a few years ago from someone who couldn't read Japanese. (Neither can I.) At the time it was identified - erroneously, I'm pretty sure - as Karatsu.

I've tried to find someone who can help identify the maker from the following photos, but so far without luck.

If anyone has any ideas or insights, I would be absolutely thrilled. It's a delight to drink from, so even if it retains its air of mystery, I don't mind too much. But it's always nice to know who the potter is, even if just to thank them personally in my mind when I drink from the bowl.

P.S. I've forgotten my Unicode skills, so I'm not sure how to resize these for saner margins. I couldn't find anything in Rules & Etiquette that said I couldn't post large pics, but if this is bad practice, please let me know (and if you can tell me what the image size limits are, wonderful!).

[debunix]

It's lovely for sure.....but that's all I can add to it's appreciation

[Moon Rabbit]

Hello.

I asked a Karatsu ceramics guide if they know of this chawan artist. She told me this is a Ido-Chawan style made in Tottori Prefecture.
Base on his chop and signage, the name of this potter is Nagai Kanrian, of the the kiln Chisoku-gama. He passed away last year.

I am not sure how you can further contact the kiln if you want to know more about the artist. I am having a hard time pinning down the kiln as it looks like they may not have a web page.

Hope this helped a little.

[pedant]

beautiful chawan, thanks for sharing.

and very nice detective work, @Moon Rabbit

P.S. I've forgotten my Unicode skills, so I'm not sure how to resize these for saner margins. I couldn't find anything in Rules & Etiquette that said I couldn't post large pics, but if this is bad practice, please let me know (and if you can tell me what the image size limits are, wonderful!).

no need to resize them. in my book, the more resolution, the better.

just note that if you upload them directly to the forum, they'll get automatically resized if they exceed 256 KiB in filesize.
viewtopic.php?p=4472#p4472

[chamekke]

Hello.

I asked a Karatsu ceramics guide if they know of this chawan artist. She told me this is a Ido-Chawan style made in Tottori Prefecture.
Base on his chop and signage, the name of this potter is Nagai Kanrian, of the the kiln Chisoku-gama. He passed away last year.

I am not sure how you can further contact the kiln if you want to know more about the artist. I am having a hard time pinning down the kiln as it looks like they may not have a web page.

Hope this helped a little.

Hello Moon Rabbit,
My apologies for not thanking you sooner for your very kind post. I'm afraid I was away from this forum for over a year!
This is wonderful information about the potter, and I'm truly grateful to you for finding it out.
If I manage to find out anything more in turn, I will share it with you here.
Again, thank you!