Black storefront of Ippodo Tea's flagship store, tearoom and headquarters in Kyoto, Japan with lush cherry blossom trees

Help, cracks formed in my bowl!

Written on April 17, 2023 (updated on October 08, 2024)

If the cracks look like a spiderweb and are a light amber color, there's a good chance that these are aesthetic cracks in the glaze called Kan'nyu.

The Matcha bowl (Cream) and the Matcha Bowl with Spout (White) have a beautiful spiderweb-like crack pattern in the glaze that is almost invisible at first. Over time, the more you make matcha in the bowl, the more this pattern will emerge in a light amber color. The pattern is called kan’nyu, and for centuries tea lovers have praised it as a sign of a well-loved matcha bowl.

Kan’nyu forms at the end of the firing process. After firing, the bowl is allowed to cool down to room temperature. The glaze cools down and solidifies at a different rate than the ceramic underneath, causing the kan’nyu to form. The pattern is just in the glaze itself, not in the ceramic underneath, which remains structurally sound.

Subscribe to our newsletter for more interesting content on Japanese tea.