Bizen ware tokkuri bottle

Explanation

This bottle has an impressively ample body with a wide base, garnering alternative names likened to a turnip and hot-air balloon. The lean, short neck is crowned with a sharply chamfered lip. The red patterns are clear on the pale skin of the body, known as hidasuki, the scorching marks left by the straws used to wrap the vessel for firing. This technique was developed initially to keep vessels from sticking together in the kiln as they were fired in piles. There are only a very few hidasuki vessels with the surface as remarkably pale as this one.