Takatori was one of many ceramic production areas in northern Kyushu originally founded by émigré Korean potters. Takatori potters catered to the tastes of renowned tea masters in the distant cities of Sakai and Kyoto. This tea bowl exhibits their trademark technique combining a thick, whitish glaze with a translucent amber one on a single vessel. Interesting patterns and effects occur where the two glazes run together. This bowl is known as a kutsu chawan, or shoe-shaped tea bowl, because of its distinctive shape--a type particularly preferred by the tea master Furuta Oribe (1543-1516).