A small porcelain bowl from the Arita / Hasami porcelain corridor on the Saga / Nagasaki prefectural border, hand-painted in cobalt-blue sometsuke (染付) with a kosome karakusa (古染唐草) scrolling arabesque motif. Both Arita-yaki (有田焼) and Hasami-yaki (波佐見焼) are designated METI Traditional Crafts (Arita 1977, Hasami 1978); both ware-lines apply, which is common practice for kilns that straddle the two regions' shared porcelain industry.
The bowl is built in a faceted (切子 kiriko) form — radial pleated panels running from the recessed square center base up to a wavy scalloped rim. The cobalt arabesque motif is concentrated at four panels of the upper inner wall (where it reads as four floral medallions when viewed from above), with smaller leaf and scroll accents at the rim corners. A characteristic Arita iron-pigment line (縁鉄釉 fuchi-tetsuyu) runs along the scalloped lip in warm brown, framing the cool indigo.
The interior radial faceting plus the lifted square base + scalloped lip combination is a classical Arita "kiriko-bachi" silhouette — the same form language that Arita potters have used for namasu (vinegar-dressed) dishes and assorted small-plate courses (kozara mawari) since the late Edo period.
About the size designation
This is catalogued as 5寸 (go-sun, "five-sun") — the 寸 numeral is a Japanese pottery-trade catalogue label, not a centimetre measurement (the literal sun-conversion 5 × 3.03 cm = 15.15 cm does NOT match the actual measured dimension). Actual measured dimensions are 14 cm diameter × 4.5 cm height. The 5寸 designation simply places this in the "five-sun small bowl" category within the kiln's form repertoire.
About the kosome (古染) style
"Kosome" 古染 literally means "old indigo" and refers to a stylistic look in cobalt-underglaze porcelain that references the deep, slightly dark, slightly imperfect indigo of early 17th-century Arita work — softer than modern crystal-clear cobalt, with brush variation in the strokes. This is a contemporary piece (manufacture year 2024); the kosome name describes the visual idiom, not a period attribution.
About this piece
Arita-yaki & Hasami-yaki porcelain from Saga and Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, curated by ZenKiln. The exact producing kiln within the Arita / Hasami corridor is not separately disclosed — a hand-painted cobalt cursive signature appears on the base of the bowl, but it is not legible enough from photographs to attribute to a named potter. The 美術 有田焼 (Bijutsu-Aritayaki) gold cooperative sticker on the base places this piece within the cooperative's art-tier classification — an industry-cooperative quality designation for hand-painted Arita pieces above commodity-tier mass production.
Arita-yaki is named for the town of Arita (Saga Prefecture) where Korean potter Yi Sam-pyeong identified porcelain-grade kaolin clay at Izumiyama in 1616, making Arita Japan's first porcelain town. Sometsuke (cobalt blue underglaze) became the signature Arita style by the mid-17th century; karakusa (scrolling arabesque) is one of the foundational motifs, derived from the same Chinese decorative vocabulary that informed early Ming-export porcelain.
Use & care
A small everyday bowl — at home as a namasu / pickle dish, a small salad bowl, a side-dish bowl, a fruit / dessert bowl, or a small serving bowl for tapas-style courses. The sometsuke (underglaze) decoration is sealed beneath the clear gloss and is fully dishwasher- and microwave-safe at standard household cycles (consistent with modern Arita / Hasami practice). The iron-pigment rim line is similarly underglaze-stable. Avoid scouring pads. Stack with care — the scalloped rim is the most vulnerable edge if stacked under heavier weight.
