Japanese Early Ceramic Teacup with Tomobako by Mihara Ken

A ceramic teacup by Japanese potter Mihara Ken (b.1958) made in his early career circa 1991.
The stoneware teacup of this particular shape is known in Japanese as Yunomi. The cylindrical black body with slightly coarse texture features geometrical incision lines carved in lattice pattern and filled with white, light green and yellow glazes forming a chevron pattern. The interior was glazed in a polished grey. The piece is impressed maker's mark and come with an original signed and titled wooden tomobako box as well as two paper slip with the artist's biography in Japanese. This work is an example of the series Mihara Ken made earlier in his career that use incised line and glaze filling contrasting the gray body.
Provenance: From a UK collection.
Mihara Ken was born in 1958 in Shimane Prefecture, Japan. He is one of the most renowned Japanese ceramists today. Hailing from Izumo, home to mystic landscapes that gave birth to the great majority of Japan's legends, Mihara's works call to mind the spiritual aesthetics of ceremonial vessels. Yet at the same time, his ceramics embody a deeply introspective and Zen tranquility.