Bizen Small Plate

A sculpture born of flame

Some objects are more than beautiful — they carry memory within them, the memory of an encounter between earth and fire. This Bizen Small Plate is the work of Makimasa Imai, a ceramicist from a three-generation lineage of potters in Kyoto. Before returning to clay, he spent ten years at the Tokyo University of the Arts, studying sculpture. That sculptor's eye — the precision of form in space — lives in every piece he creates. To place this plate on your table is to welcome a work of art into the quiet intimacy of daily life.

Ancient Clay and the Memory of Flames

Bizen clay is among the most storied in Japan. It comes from one of the Six Ancient Kilns (Rokkoyo) — those legendary centers of Japanese ceramics with a history spanning more than a thousand years — and carries within it the weight of time and the silent density of mountain earth.

This plate was shaped by hand, then entrusted to the wood-fired Noborigama climbing kiln in Takehara, Hiroshima Prefecture. No glaze. No enamel. No human hand intervened to color or adorn the surface. Only the living flame and drifting ash drew what the Japanese call keshiki — the "landscape" that each piece comes to wear. Every dancing flame, every grain of ash that settles, leaves a mark that is unique, irreplaceable, eternal.

What you see on this plate is not decoration. It is nature's own signature.

Five Landscapes from One Fire — Choose Yours (A to E, first come, first served)

In the same Takehara kiln, five small plates were fired together. Same clay. Same hands. Same flame.

And yet.

Depending on where each piece rested inside the kiln, on how the fire brushed or embraced it, on the path the ash took through the heated air, each one emerged entirely different. One carries deep, ink-dark tones. Another reveals warm, almost copper-like reflections where the flame lingered longest. A third holds the trace of ash fallen like a breath.

Five landscapes. Five destinies born from the same moment.

We invite you to choose your piece from among the five — A, B, C, D, or E — in the order requests are received. Each letter corresponds to an individually photographed plate. Look closely. One of them is waiting for you.

Japanese Art de Vivre, at Your Table

In Paris, as in Kyoto, the most beautiful meals begin with attention to detail. This Bizen Small Plate is made for the moments that matter: a bite of aged cheese before dinner, a few olives at apéritif, a square of dark chocolate with coffee, or a poached fig as dessert.

It finds its place beyond the table too: an elegant tray for evening jewelry, a ring dish in ancient clay, a quiet and beautiful presence on a shelf or a desk.

One unique piece. A lifetime of use.

Specifications

One-of-a-kind piece. Variations in color and texture are inherent to the nature of the work.