4.5x3.5x1.5 Inch Bushuan Rectangle Bonsai Pot #651 – Heavy Drip Glaze, Ruri Blue, Chop Mark

Ruri blue, and a rare colour on a Bushuan pot. Green is what he is known for, with purples, yellows and blues usually working underneath it rather than taking the surface. Here the blue is the surface. He reproduced Cantonese green, oribe and chicken-blood red with real technical control, so a blue like this reads less as an experiment than as a colour he chose not to make often.

The drip is heavy, as it always is with him, built up in coats and fired to run down the wall. The rim flares outward and the body was carved by hand.

At 4.5 by 3.5 inches and 1.5 inches deep this is mame to small shohin scale, and very shallow. It suits a tree whose roots are fully developed, or an accent planting beside a larger display. A blue this saturated also does something different from his greens next to foliage: it contrasts rather than harmonises, which is worth thinking about before you plant.