[清本源 x Gohobi Gallery] Doucai Chicken Cup with Inner-Impressed Willow Leaf Motif – “Falling Blossoms and Flowing Water” Design (80ml)

This doucai chicken cup presents a poetic vision of movement and impermanence, where classical painting techniques and literary imagery are translated into a refined ceramic form.

The exterior decoration depicts flowing water rendered in a traditional boneless painting technique, using layered green enamel to suggest winding currents and gentle waves. The water appears lively and continuous, with overlapping strokes creating the impression of clear streams rippling over one another. Scattered across the surface, countless peach blossoms drift along the current, floating freely with the flow. The composition feels fluid and unforced, as though the blossoms were carried naturally by the water rather than arranged upon it.

The theme of falling blossoms and flowing water draws deeply from Tang dynasty poetic imagery. It echoes Li Bai’s line, “Peach blossoms drift away with flowing water, leading to another world beyond the human realm,” an image that itself traces back to the idealised landscape of Tao Yuanming’s Peach Blossom Spring. It also resonates with Zhang Zhihe’s famous verse, “Before Xisai Mountain the white egrets fly; peach blossoms drift in the stream where perch grow fat,” capturing a vision of nature in effortless harmony. Together, these references lend the cup a quiet sense of timelessness and retreat, where nature, poetry, and imagination converge.

Inside the cup, a willow leaf motif is subtly inner-impressed beneath the glaze. Emerging gently from within the porcelain body, the pattern offers a calm counterpoint to the movement of the exterior scene. The willow’s soft resilience mirrors the flowing water, reinforcing themes of adaptability, continuity, and quiet grace.

Rendered in doucai technique, the colours remain vivid yet composed, allowing the scene to feel fresh without excess. When tea is poured, light and liquid animate the painted currents, as if the blossoms were drifting anew with each use.

The form follows the classic chicken cup silhouette, compact and balanced, ideal for gongfu tea practice. Its proportions encourage attentive handling and unhurried sipping, inviting the drinker into a moment of poetic stillness.

Diameter: 7.8 cm
Height: 3.8 cm
Capacity: 80 ml

The listed price is for one cup. Each piece is individually handcrafted, and subtle variations in enamel tone, inner impression, and form are part of its unique character. Customers are welcome to request a private video viewing for a closer look. Orders are shipped using reused or recycled packaging wherever possible.

A tea cup shaped by water and blossom, where classical poetry flows quietly into the present—inviting each tea moment to drift, pause, and unfold with grace.