11.5x9x4 Inch Gyouzan Rectangle Bonsai Pot #313 – Cloud Feet, Glazed, Nail Signed

A glazed Gyouzan, and nail signed. Both halves of that sentence are worth slowing down for. Glazed pieces from the Gyouzan kiln are the ones collectors chase hardest. Most on the market now are fifty to sixty years old, production of the glazed work stopped at some point for reasons the potter never explained, and a clean original example is genuinely difficult to find today. The nail signature is the other half. Gyouzan made production pots as well as handmade ones, and that incised mark is what tells you which this is.

The detailing is characteristic of the kiln. It stands on cloud feet, the rim turns inward in a flat inverted profile rather than flaring out, and a border runs around the bottom of the body. Those are the deliberate touches that give a Gyouzan presence without decorating for its own sake.

At 11.5 by 9 inches and 4 inches deep this is a middle-sized pot, suited to chuhin material rather than a large specimen, and easier to place on a working bench than the big pieces the kiln is famous for. Four inches is real root volume at that footprint, so it suits a tree that still wants some depth. A glazed pot is conventionally paired with deciduous, flowering or fruiting species, where the colour has foliage to answer.