Kostenloser Versand - Hodaka Ryuji (穂高隆児, geb. 1976) — Facettierte Oribe Guinomi mit Ascheglasur, - Porzellan - Hodaka Ryuji - Japan - Reiwa-Zeit (2019-heute)

– By Hodaka Ryuji (穂高隆児, b. 1976), Kasama-based ceramicist and former professional Japanese chef of sixteen years
– Faceted form in the classic Oribe tradition — soft sage-green ash glaze over pale stoneware with generous windows of exposed clay
– Scattered iron-oxide spots in black and russet, warm peach kiln-blush, and a weathered, almost archaeological surface texture

Summary:
A faceted guinomi by Hodaka Ryuji that speaks directly to the Oribe tradition in its most authentic register — muted sage greens, raw sandy clay, iron-spot accents, and the quiet warmth of kiln-born colour. Where Hodaka's cobalt-glazed pieces announce themselves with graphic boldness, this cup whispers. The palette belongs to the earth: pale stone, lichen green, rust, and the flushed peach of clay that has felt the kiln's breath. Scattered iron-oxide dots — some inky black, others a warm russet brown — punctuate the surface like seeds, spores, or traces left by time. For collectors who value the wabi-sabi heart of Mino ceramic tradition, this guinomi offers something rare: a contemporary potter's deeply personal dialogue with a four-hundred-year-old aesthetic, informed by a lifetime spent handling food and the vessels that carry it.

Hodaka Ryuji's journey to ceramics began in the kitchen. From the age of eighteen he trained as an itamae — a professional Japanese chef — working for sixteen years in kappo and kaiseki restaurants, including a posting as chef at the Japanese Embassy in Spain. He rose to head chef in Tokyo before leaving the profession in 2011 to study ceramics at the Ibaraki Prefectural Ceramics Training Institute. By 2013 he had established his own kiln in Kasama, bringing with him an understanding of tableware that no art-school education alone could provide. His Oribe work, in particular, has drawn praise in both tea-ceremony circles and among restaurant professionals who recognise the practical intelligence embedded in every form.

This guinomi shares the same faceted architecture as Hodaka's bolder pieces — flat, hand-carved planes that meet at soft ridges, tapering from an irregular rim toward a compact foot. But the surface treatment here is far more restrained. A semi-translucent ash glaze, tinted with the faintest sage green, is applied in an uneven veil across the exterior. In some areas it sits thick enough to pool in the carved recesses, gathering a slightly glassier, greener tone. In others it barely mists the surface, allowing the raw clay to show through with its natural sandy texture and fine grain.

The exposed clay is where much of the cup's beauty resides. Pale cream in its base tone, it warms to a soft peach and gentle orange in areas where the kiln's atmosphere has induced iron blush — those unpredictable, irreproducible flushes of colour that only fire can create. These warm passages appear and disappear around the facets like sunlight moving across stone, lending each face of the cup a slightly different temperature and mood.

The iron-oxide spots are applied with the loose, intuitive hand of a seasoned maker. Some are small and precise — tight dark circles that sit crisply on the glaze surface. Others are softer, bleeding slightly into the surrounding clay, their colour shifting from blue-black to russet brown depending on how the iron has reacted with the glaze chemistry. A few larger circular motifs appear here and there — quiet echoes of the bolder dots on Hodaka's cobalt pieces, but subdued here to match the cup's gentler palette. Together, these spots create a rhythm that is organic rather than decorative, scattered rather than arranged, alive rather than designed.

The overall surface has a beautifully weathered quality — a dry, slightly rough texture interrupted by small glaze pools and fine crackle, as though the cup had been unearthed from a Momoyama-era kiln site rather than made in a contemporary studio. This archaeological feeling is not accidental. Oribe ware, at its best, has always carried the paradox of being simultaneously new and ancient, refined and rough, controlled and wild. Hodaka understands this tension instinctively, and his chef's training gives him the discipline to push toward rawness without losing structural integrity or functional grace.

The interior is glazed in a smooth, pale greenish-white — clean and receptive, a calm surface that would frame the colour of sake, the froth of matcha, or the deep amber of aged whisky with equal elegance. The throwing rings are faintly present, adding a subtle texture that catches liquid in thin, gleaming lines.

In a European interior, this guinomi embodies the quiet side of Japanese craft. Against a linen cloth, a wooden tray, or a stone shelf, its muted earth tones and subtle green read as effortlessly natural. Paired with the cobalt-glazed cup from the same maker, the two form a compelling study in contrast — the same hand, the same form, two entirely different moods.

The cup appears to be in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, or repairs. The rough surface textures, glaze variations, and iron spotting are all intentional features of the artist's process.

A cup that carries four centuries of Oribe spirit and sixteen years of kitchen wisdom — quiet, earthy, and deeply considered.

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