Splendid Japanese incense container, also known as kogo, used for tea ceremony. The persimmon has a small lady bug sitting near the head of the persimmon. The incense container contains an inscription reading: Rakushisha, which is a small hut in the Sagano district of Kyoto. The hut was the summer home of Matsuo Basho's disciple, Mukai Kyorai. The hut was given the name when a hurricane blew all the persimmons off the trees planted in the estate...

This lovely Bizen ware is called Kogo / incense container used for Japanese tea ceremony. The shape is a seed of wisteria suitable for tea ceremony in autumn / winter. This is the work of a potter Yoshimoto Shuho. Shuho was born in 1938 in Okayama prefecture and studied pottery under Fujita Yoshiro. After Shuho became independent, he first produced Bizen ware for 10 years...

A Mashiko ware tea bowl (chawan) by Hamada Shoji. The bowl is glazed in a style known as kaki yu or persimmon color glaze which is often seen in Mashiko wares. Hamada Shoji along with Yanagi Muneyoshi and Barnard Leech were part of the mingei movement in the late 20th century. The movement emphasized the simple minimalist beauty found in daily objects made by unknown artists. Thus, Shoji never signed his works, where he too wanted people to simply appreciate his ceramics, not his notoriety...

An antique Japanese Karatsu ware tea container or chaire with motif of donkeys painted on the side of the piece. One side is painted in a indigo blue color with a fine tip and on the other side is brown done in thicker lines. The motif of donkeys in Japanese art may infer to the literati taste of a rustic and simple lifestyle. The motif is not often seen in ceramics, but mostly in paintings influenced by Chinese works...

A Gasaku joint effort by Kyoto porcelain master Takahashi Dohachi V and Scholar artist Tomioka Tessai (1837-1924) dating from the late Meiji to Taisho period. Enigmatic Characters in cobalt strike firmly from the smooth alabaster surface. The bowl is 4-3/4 inches (12 cm) diameter, 3-1/2 inches (9 cm) tall and in perfect condition. Written on the side is Sho-Do Ki? Sue, Nyu Chyu? Ho-nari followed by the signature Tessai Gai-shi...

A very unusual unglazed small tea pot decorated with various nuts and seeds all in three dimensional relief, featuring a mushroom shaped lid dating from the later 19th to early 20th century. Known as Banko in Japan, the kilns which produced these items were also responsible for the Sumidagawa pottery so popular in the west. This piece has 8 seeds about the shoulder, including peanut, pumpkin and sunflower...

A brilliantly textured Oni-Hagi bowl dating from the early 20th century by Deika (Sakata Deika XII, died 1934), the radically fissured surface ruptured by exploding inclusions; the scars connected by cracks in the glaze giving the appearance of constellations written into a yellow sky. Outside the bowl is an earthy beige, mostly eclipsed by pale white. Inside the basin is the same earthy color, while all the walls are like salt foam...