"Shu Kou" (束口), literally "contracted mouth," is the most classic of the Song dynasty Jianzhan forms. The rim turns gently inward at the top, holding the tea's warmth and aroma close to the drinker. Here it sits in its most standard scale — neither the generous width of the Da Shu Kou nor the small, weighty stance of other forms — just the clean, balanced middle of the line. The proportions are small and light in the hand.
The glaze is a Huang Zhe Gu (黄鹧鸪, "Yellow Partridge") speckle, named after the Chinese partridge — a small game bird whose plumage shows fine rust-colored speckles against a darker ground. The bowl takes that pattern into its body: a near-black ground covered edge to edge in tiny iron-oxide spots, so fine and dense that the surface reads at a glance as a continuous rust-colored field. The pattern is most striking on the interior, where the speckles cluster into a fine, even pattern and brighten toward the rim. On the exterior, the same fine speckles run down the body, the color shifting from a warm orange at the rim to a deep near-black at the base. The whole surface catches the light with a quiet, soft gleam.
Handcrafted in Jianyang, Nanping, Fujian — historically known as Jianzhou or Jian'an — and fired at 1300°C. The bowl is dense in hand and holds heat well; its iron-rich glaze is often said to soften the taste of the tea.
| Capacity |
145 ml |
| Weight |
160 g |
| Height |
5.5 cm |
| Diameter |
8 cm |
Photos are taken of one piece selected at random from each batch. The bowl you receive will carry the same glaze and the same overall pattern, with only very slight differences in the exact placement of individual spots or streaks — a subtle variation, never a drastic change. Slight color differences may also appear due to lighting and screen calibration.
The same glaze in a wider, more generous form is also available: "Da Shu Kou" Yellow Partridge Jianzhan Tea Bowl.
Shipped in a fabric drawstring pouch (cotton-linen outer, silk-floss padding, velvet lining).
See the full Jianzhan collection here.
Note: some bowls carry small smooth sand points on the glaze surface — natural marks left by the firing, very common in wood-fired, traditionally hand-thrown Jianzhan. They are smooth to the touch, with no pits or depressions, do not affect the bowl's use for tea in any way, and are not considered a workmanship defect.
