Shino Chawan

One of our big explorations in the spring of 2026 has been to try to emulate the effects of the mogusa clay from Mino which is traditionally used to make shino chawan. That clay has very little iron, is quite coarse which leaves a rough surface texture after trimming, and is very refractory which results in tea bowls that aren’t fully vitrified and that feel soft in the hand. A first step towards understanding mogusa resulted in a series of tea bowls made with a highly grogged commercial porcelain. It performed quite well, giving us a surface texture that encouraged the pitting and texture that are perhaps the most noteworthy features of a traditional shino chawan. This bowl is one of the nicer pieces from this round of experimentation.