Indigo Hexagon Tea Bowl

Indigo Hexagon Tea Bowl belongs to Shiomi's extended series treating the chawan, the tea bowl, as a formal and contemplative object. The hexagonal framing device — a six-sided aperture or border encasing the central vessel — is a recurring structural motif in her work, drawing on the kikkō (tortoiseshell) pattern long used in Japanese textiles, ceramics, and Edo-period print design. The choice of indigo connects the print to the deep aizome blue tradition of katazome textiles and to the Prussian-blue palette that entered ukiyo-e in the early nineteenth century. In mokuhanga, the saturated indigo field would be built up through repeated impressions of the same color block, each pass deepening the pigment as the washi absorbs successive layers of water-based ink under the baren. The hexagonal border and the rounded silhouette of the bowl create a tension between geometric precision and organic curvature that is characteristic of Shiomi's still lifes, where domestic objects are abstracted into contemplative emblems.