Individual serving cup with design of pine-covered mountains and latticework fences

Thick, pitted, and white, the glaze known as Shino, made with feldspar, was an unprecedented departure from earlier iron and ash glazes. It was developed by potters working at kilns with Mino province, the modern Gifu prefecture. Mino potters used Shino glaze on vessels made of pale, rough-textured clay. The soft, granular underfired glaze on this cup is typical of early Shino ware. By applying the light-colored glaze over designs painted with iron pigment or scratched into overall coating of iron slip (liquid clay), they created Japan's first pictorially decorated ceramics. Depending on the thickness of the glaze and conditions of firing, the iron might appear red, brown, gray, or even blue. A reddish "blush" sometimes developed on the vessel edges where the Shino glaze was thin.

This individual serving cup was made as part of a set of tableware. Later, after the set was dispersed, a subsequent owner converted the single cup to use as an ornamental "alternative tea container" for display in the tea room by providing it with a hinged ivory lid.