How to look at a bonsai pot: shape, glaze and marks

Outline before name

Look at the outline first: the rim, the walls, the feet. The Koho rectangle has a flared rim and cloud feet; the Eimei pot is an oval. Shape helps determine what kind of tree a pot may suit, before any question of maker or price.

Glaze, or bare clay

Then the surface. The Koho pot is unglazed, so its character is in the clay and the edges. The Eimei oval is glazed in namako; with a glaze, look at how it gathers on the rim, how it thins over edges, and how it ends at the foot.

Read the mark only as far as it goes

Last, turn it over. The Koho foot carries 光峰, which places the pot in the kiln’s moulded line rather than the hand-made line. The Eimei foot carries his own oval seal, 英明.

A mark tells you some things and not others. Read it for what it shows, and keep the rest open. If a mark is shallow, change the light before you change your reading.