[About the product]
Marianne Hallberg×This is a bowl from the Seto ware series.
The Marianne prototype has been made one size smaller, with a diameter of approximately 12cm. It reproduces the handmade distortion and features a shape that fits comfortably in your hand. You can enjoy various expressions depending on the angle.
There is an emptiness there, so I think of something to fill it. However, no matter how much I fill it up, it always ends up empty again. This tea bowl really expresses Marianne's idea.
Since this is a bowl made by her, of course you are free to use it as you like. Please use it for things other than tableware. Try filling an empty bowl with water, floating flowers, piling up stones you've found, piling up acorns, or filling an empty bowl from time to time.
For me, this bowl is really simple. I can see people all over the world eating whatever they want. It's easy to hold, doesn't get in the way, and is all you need. It's just about living simply.
-Marianne
[From the production side]
I would like to write about this bowl from the production side. For example, what I think of when I look at this bowl is something like this.
At Marianne's workshop, I was engrossed in the conversation when lunch came around and I decided to eat ``makanai.'' I was able to cook fluffy rice and grill some dried fish. This is the bowl that Marianne used to serve me rice. It's the first time I've ever seen this pottery, and it's simpler than any of the other pieces scattered around the workshop. I heard that they have been using this for a long time here, and that they baked mine yesterday. It has no decorations, and looks like it was made just for the current use. A bowl is a temporary place to store food when it is transferred from outside to inside people. Food stays in the bowl only for a moment, and it is always empty or in the process of becoming empty. What a busy yet humble role a tea bowl has. We emptied the bowls, and Marianne piled up the empties and took them away. Something like this has never happened before, but I feel like it will continue to happen. That is what I think of as an ``empty bowl.''
[About Marianne's seto series]
"Seto ware" is a traditional ceramic produced in Seto City, Aichi Prefecture, and has been familiar to people's lives since ancient times and has been incorporated into various vessels and pottery. As many of these items are now exported overseas, they are widely known as a representative traditional craft that conveys the charm of ``made in Japan'' to the world.
The "seto series" is a series that was completed under the supervision of Marianne herself, working with a Japanese workshop to review the manufacturing process from scratch to provide affordable prices and durability while preserving as much of her original goodness as possible. The pottery that is the ideal partner for us at Tonkachi and Marianne is one of the representative potteries of Seto ware that has been around since the Taisho era.