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Ceramic Feature

Sometsuke Kuromaron Shippomonyo Kabin (染付黒マロン七宝文様花瓶）

This is an Arita ware vase which Ryuzumi-san has created.
The special dark black color is made of several original ingredients which he mixed.
No ceramic artists are able to produce this unique hue like Ryuzumi-san does.

Sometsuke (染付)
- A pottery with blue pictures and patterns on a white background-

It refers to the skill of blue-painting on a unglazed ceramic.
Patterns are painted with a "gosu" containing cobalt oxide that turns blue color.
And it's baked after being glazed on top of it.

Sometsuke has been made from the early days of Arita ware in 1610s.
At first it was influenced the Chinese pottery, there's a pile of efforts by potters and
today's sometsuke has one kind of exquisite beauty even in its simplicity.