Long neck Tanba Vase

A large, massive flower vase with a long neck. The round body is slightly asymmetrical. While the main body was made in the coil-building technique and then paddled to obtain a smooth surface, the neck was added and shaped on a potter's wheel, as the finger rills indicate. The rim of the lip elegantly ends the long neck, which takes up almost half of the vase's total height. The heavy body rests on a wide, flat base that can support a wide, overhanging branch for floral decoration.  

The dark brown, iron-rich shard has a relatively fine structure with only a few quartz particles. It is partially covered with a dark green ash glaze, which was sprayed on the neck, possibly blown through a bamboo pipe, and poured in large parts over the shoulders of the vessel. The glaze melted during firing and ran down in long streams ending in individual crystalline glaze drops. 

An interesting detail of this piece is an unglazed oval area on the front of the vase where a lump of clay was attached and fell off during firing, leaving an inverted pattern called botamochi, or "rice cake [pattern]," usually a signature decoration for Bizen ware.

Overall, its a very interesting work that lives up to the vivid deatails. Also, given the fact that there was not a large production of Tanba ware with long necks, and even fewer pieces have survived the passage of time due to their fragile appearance, this is an unusual and rare piece worthy of being added to a serious collection of old Japanese pottery.

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