3.5 Inch Deep Yamaaki Rinka Bonsai Pot #25 – Bold Worm Eaten Texture, Unglazed, Chop & Nail Signed

Two decorative decisions sit on this pot and they pull in opposite directions. The rim is rinka, finished in a repeating scalloped pattern like the edge of a flower, which dresses up an otherwise simple form. The surface is mushikui, the hand-carved relief Yamaaki became known for, and its whole purpose is to look weathered and eaten away, as though something had been at the clay for years. One says ornament. The other says age. Getting them to agree on the same pot is the interesting part.

This is third-generation Yamaaki, by Toshio Kataoka. He took the kiln on from his father and ran it until it closed in 2011, and he was the one who installed the gas kiln in the 1970s that moved Yamaaki into higher-volume production. That history makes his work the most accessible way into Yamaaki ware without giving up the family's craftsmanship, and it means something particular now that the kiln is shut. Toshio still pots under the Ittoen name, but anything signed from his Yamaaki years is a closed set. This piece carries both a chop and a nail signature scratched in by hand with a pointed tool while the clay was still leather-hard, which marks it as personally finished rather than straight off the line.

At 3.5 inches deep this is a reasonably deep pot for its scale, with useful root volume behind it. Because a rinka rim carries the personality, pots like this suit trees that want a softer, more ornamental container, flowering and fruiting species in particular, rather than a heavy conifer that would compete with the rim for attention.