Matthias Kaiser – Madara with Tanpan Chawan

This bowl carries a glaze made from wheat straw ash, feldspar and wood ash, resembling a traditional Madara glaze from the Karatsu region. In addition, accents of tanpan were added, a mixture of Oribe glaze with extra copper. This has introduced subtle colour nuances. During firing the glaze ran down in drops, creating an interesting landscape in the lower area. To prevent it from sticking to the kiln shelf, the bowl was supported at the foot with fireclay and shells. These traces remain clearly visible and tell the story of how the piece was made.

Matthias Kaiser’s matcha bowls are one-of-a-kind pieces and therefore have collector’s value.

Matcha chawan are tea bowls for green powdered tea (matcha). The tea is whisked directly in the bowl with a bamboo whisk and then drunk from it. The bowls are functional sculptures. Many details are carefully considered in their making, details that usually only reveal themselves after a longer engagement with the culture of tea drinking. The choice of clay body and glaze materials is significant, as are the timing of the forming process, the nuances of the form, the gesture of the making, the tools used and the traces they leave, and not least the firing.
Matthias Kaiser trained as a potter in Japan and regularly exhibits his work there as well. These tea bowls reflect his more than 30 years of working with these forms.

All bowls are made from an unrefined, natural clay from the Czech Republic, which Matthias Kaiser prepares himself in his studio for use. This clay has a high iron content and contains natural deposits of quartz and limonite that give the surfaces a distinctive character.