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Japanese TEA BOWL - MINO

NOTE: This is one of my most intriguing  encounter with buying Japanese Ceramics.

I am not mad at the seller, and, neither is this a "Rant" against him/her. I did like the Tea Bowls, and, I know/understand that it is the buyer's responsibility to know what he/she is buying.

In 2021. "It's nobody's fault but my own " is a fact of life.

I bought this Tea Bowl and this is the description from the seller :

Ao-Oribe Chawan of  Early Edo Period

" Only little distorted cylinder shaped (hansutsu) tea bowl with a rounded brim,  made of light, coarse, unrefined Mino clay.

The expertly thrown body was trimmed with a potter's knife in its lower part and around the foot ring.

This bowl was covered with a green copper oxide glaze.

On one side a window left unglazed and covered with a thin transparent ash glaze under which two wheels of law, two plum bosoms and a Cricket (korogi) were painted in iron oxide.

Inside  the foot ring is a kiln mark (kamajirushi) in the shape of a V, a mark frequently found on shards excavated at the Entogawa-kiln in Mino, active during the first quarter of the 17th century.
The bowl is well balanced. "

True (?), or just advertising , I did like the design and was willing to pay/bid on the Tea Bowl.

The two ( half wheels ) Cartwheels partially submerged in water/stream, was called " Katawa-guruma " ( Wheels in Stream ? )

The "V" in the foot ( Kodai ), might be a Merchant's mark.

From the book, " SHINO AND ORIBE CERAMICS " by Ryoichi Fujioka :

" Until the Meiji Period, these signs were considered to be the production marks of either the potter or the Kiln, and, in fact this long remained the popular view. "

Remember the Shimbei "T" ? 

This is another interesting topic to be discussed later..