24K Gold Kintsugi Kyoto Matcha Bowl | Raku-style Accord

Red Raku-style of Kyoto Shaped by tea masters since the sixteenth century, Kyoto's Raku-style tea bowls were developed for the tea ceremony. Red Raku-style ware, or aka-raku, is fired briefly at low temperatures, producing a light body beneath a thin, finely crackled glaze. This bowl has a warm vermilion surface, smoke-grey firing marks on one shoulder, and an unglazed buff foot. Born of Kyoto’s Heritage: This piece too is authentic Kyo-yaki pottery, handcrafted using time-honored techniques and refined by centuries of Japanese artistry. Learn more → The Art and Technique of Kyoto Ware Four Months of Restoration Maki Mizuno, a lacquer artist who holds a degree in Lacquer Arts from Kyoto City University of Arts and supervised the portrayal of kintsugi in a published manga, spent four months restoring this bowl, broken into fragments. She rejoined the pieces, filled the damaged areas, and built a smooth foundation in cured, polished layers of natural urushi. She then sprinkled 24K marufun (spherical gold powder) over the restored areas in the maki-e manner and sealed it with a thin coat of raw urushi, forming one durable layer. The roiro finish completes the work, a meticulous hand-polish of exceptional difficulty that brings out the gold's rich, deep luster. Food-safe, the bowl remains suitable for tea. Held in Two Hands Branching gold lines form an intricate composition over the vermilion glaze, bringing out its fine crackle and smoke-grey firing marks. A Raku-style bowl is made to be held in two hands; its light body and 450 ml capacity suit whisking matcha as well as display. Mizuno's kintsugi is one strand of a practice that also produces her own contemporary urushi work, and this bowl carries that strand onward, together with Kyoto's tea ceramics and the four months of focused attention she gave it, to the collection that receives it.