Katsuro Yokota

Katsuro Yokota works in Saga, in the porcelain heartland of western Japan — the region that has shaped Japanese blue-and-white ware for centuries. Each piece is painted by hand in sometsuke, the cobalt-blue underglaze tradition, the brush moving freely across the white porcelain before the final firing.

Much of his work draws on the annan manner — a quiet, unhurried style of blue-and-white named for its old trade roots in Southeast Asia, prized for its soft lines and gentle imperfection rather than rigid precision. Arabesques, water grasses, and scattered florals run across bowls and cups in cobalt that pools darker where the brush lingered and fades where it lifted.

No two pieces are alike. Painted individually and fired one batch at a time, each bowl and cup carries the small variations that mark a true handmade object — the reason a piece like this belongs on a table set with intention.