Artistic Nippon had a couple of "aobizen" items for sale recently. I picked up a kyuusu and a cup (and I noticed somebody else picked up the other cup shortly after!)...
I was smitten with the kyuusu the moment I saw it. I only own one other kyuusu (a yohen gyokko), so this is definitely one of my special purchases for the year.
Here's the back... the hidasuki marks on the kyuusu are a light brown... very neat.
And a shot of the beautiful bottom in the fading sunlight... you can see the marks a bit clearer in this shot.
AN had a few cups of the 'ao' type -- two of them were cups that had the typical bizen scorching on the outside, but were 'raw' (ao -- blue, or in this case, blue-gray) on the inside. Actually one of the cups seemed more golden, which was interesting. But they also had a "pure" ao cup. That's the one I picked up, mostly because it reminded me of the Hagi Special Offering "Snowdrifts." In fact, my last picture is of the two side-by-side... a little blurry, but will try to get a better picture when the lighting is better.
This cup reminds me of the "thawed" version of the hagi...
I got some other items from AN, but more along the lines of accessories. Will share those later...