Tea bowl with very indistinct mark.

Re-discovered this bowl yesterday in one of the many boxes in my loft. Be nice to know who made it, but the mark is very indistinct.

The internal decoration looks Japanese, and the written mark on the base might be kanji, but the wire cut base isn’t usual for Japanese wares; they tend to trim or turn the foot as there are a whole range of traditional foot shapes they like to use. Might still be from one of the smaller Asian countries, or by a studio potter running a glaze test. I don’t know.

I like the decoration but I think I would agree with Naomi that it is most likely a studio potter's test piece looking at how well the brush decorating slip is working. The faint mark on the base being a code for identification purposes.

I've given the base some good old-fashioned soap and water and now the mark looks more like a monogram, possibly DLO or similar.