17x13x4.5 Inch Suzuki Suzan Rectangle Bonsai Pot #255 – Bottom Border, Unglazed, Chop Mark

A large unglazed rectangle from Suzuki Suzan with a flat rim and a border running around the bottom of the body. Those two details do quiet work. The flat rim finishes the top edge without adding visual weight to it, and the bottom border gives the eye a line to stop on, so a pot this size does not read as a plain box.

His clay is the reason collectors know the name. Suzan worked outside Tokoname, in the suburbs of Nagoya, without the great ceramic clay deposit the Tokoname potters were sitting on, so he solved the problem himself: imported material, refined over years, until he had strength without the weight that normally comes with it. Pick up one of his pots and the mass is not where you expect it. He left nearly all his work unglazed, and the chop on the base is the mark to check.

At 17 by 13 inches and 4.5 inches deep this is a large pot with real root volume, deeper than most of his rectangles. That suits a conifer or any tree carrying weight above the soil rather than a finished specimen in a shallow display. The elongated footprint reads formally and pairs naturally with a strong upright trunk.