Matsubayashi Hosai XVI was born in Uji City, Kyoto Prefecture, in 1980, and is the 16th-generation head of the Asahi-yaki kiln. Asahi-yaki is a tea ceramics kiln with a history of about 400 years. Opened in Uji during the Keichō era, at the transition from the Momoyama to the Edo period, it is counted among the “Seven Kilns of Enshū” favored by the tea master Kobori Enshū. He learned ceramics from his father and also gained experience making pottery at the Leach Pottery in England. Rooted in making use of the local clay, he inherits Enshū’s aesthetic of kirei-sabi (“refined rusticity”) while combining the pale blue geppaku (moon-white) glaze with gold decoration to create tea bowls that evoke the changing moods of nature.