The Evolution of Teabowl Aesthetics
Introduction
The exalted teabowl has had a rich history, with many waves of influence buffeting its walls, adding glazes and enamels, distorting its shape, or removing all ostentation in favour of stark simplicity. Each shift in aesthetic reflects the worldly pressures of macro-scale political and economic trends, practical and technological considerations, and the individual tastes of important chajin (tea people). There seem to have existed at least two parallel artistic trends at any given time; one was more conservative, favouring fine ware reminiscent of the karamono, Chinese wares, through which the tea ceremony originated, while the other was more experimental, breaking the trends and tending to extreme simplicity, or to extreme distortion. It is fundamental to note the barely-wavering love these chajin held for humble kōraimono (Korean ware) bowls. Perhaps this love was due to their scarcity and to their unlaboured, quiet nature — qualities which manifest the wabi-sabi aesthetic (the relative beauty of rustic poverty and the appreciation of impermanence) articulated in Yōshida Kenko’s early-1330’s work Essays in Idleness (Hur 2015:13). Ultimately, the teabowl is a singular moment in time, synthesizing all preceding evolution and succeeding re-creation: a modern bowl contains the spirit of the teabowls that have come before, as much as a medieval bowl contains the connoisseurs’ personifications and re-presentation of its history.
From shoin to sōan: Murata Shukō (1423-1502) and Takeno Jōō (1502-1555).
Although tea and its corresponding continental culture were first recorded in Japan in 815, the history of the teabowl does not begin until long after the monk Eisai’s revival of tea as a medicinal and alertness-promoting beverage in the 12th century. The monks established protocols for handling tea, which were mainly practiced int the temple. These gradually permeated Japanese high society, members of which were occasionally invited to join. Thus, the Ashikaga shoguns came to enjoy lavish tea-tasting contests (Maske 2011:5). With the renewal of sino-Japanese trade, karamono (Chinese things)— dazzling Song Dynasty celadon, Ming Dynasty susancai (three-colour lead glaze), and especially jian /tenmoku (lustrous iron glaze) ware — which were technological miracles compared to the rough native wares, became the teaware of choice for the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa in his palace shoin (formal drawing room) (Takeshi 2007:82-83). However, following the Ōnin Wars’ (1467-1477) destruction of Kyoto’s precious teaware collections, a more reserved aesthetic of wabicha originated by Murata Shuko. The “hiekaruru” (Chilled and withered) style became an economically and spiritually necessity for chajin who had lost their favourite pieces. For the growing merchant class, it offered a practical, accessible, and less costly approach to practicing tea that also incorporated prevailing Zen Buddhist ideals and hie (chilled) and kare (withered) terminology of renga (linked-verse) poetry popular at the time. For sukisha (tea-utensil connoisseurs) with a few fine imported pieces, it offered a stark backdrop to showcase their treasures (Cort 1979:110-113). However, Shukō himself derided the amateurs that turned indiscriminately to Bizen and Shigaraki wares (Two of the six ancient kilns, along with Seto, Tokoname, Tamba, Echizen); he still clung to shoin-style refinement and sought some “compelling, mysterious balance between Chinese and Japanese objects” (Takeshi 2007:84), a niche filled precisely by less-than-top-class imported ‘island wares’ (from Oceania) or smuggled goods such as kōraimono (Korean Things). Scholars contend that these bowls were made by Joseon peasants for everyday use, which is a notion Takeshi accords to the wabi “valorization of the mundane” (Takeshi 2007:88). However, this historical claim is not substantiated by archeological records; more likely they were bowls for ceremonial offerings (Maske 2011:7). Scarcity due to their rarity and difficulty of procurement increased their desirability (Hur 2015:11). Nonetheless, in the 1530’s, as tea moved from nobles’ homes and shoin into the specialized sōan (mountain huts in the city) of the intelligentsia, the unrefined Korean bowls became the teaware of choice and were in widespread use by the 1560’s (Hur 2015:6). Their quiet softness, comfort on the hands and lips, and their balanced convection of warmth soothed the eyes and hands. Moreover, the larger size of the Ido (well-shaped) bowl was simply more practical for koicha (thick tea) preparation and sharing. Their unknown provenance allowed for the creation of identities and personalities; they were given names and “imagined” into masterpieces by their devotees, who were constantly competing on matters of taste (Cort 1992:71). The ability to poetically appreciate the bowls’ rustic forms, such as the round indentation at the bottom —called the ‘tea pool’, where the last drops of tea collected— the “plum-blossom bark” crackling glaze, along with the keshiki (landscapes) created by fire and kiln effects became an identifier of connoisseurs (Takeshi 2007:86; Raku 2011:7). Cort puts it best in her statement that “While connoisseurship defined masterpieces, masterpieces also defined and reaffirmed connoisseurs” (Cort 1992:21).
These chajin numbered only in the hundreds and had Takeno Jōō, the foremost master following Shukō, as their patriarch. Jōō, the ever playful and creative renga poet, also began incorporating mitatemono (found objects) into the tea ritual, writing “A suki-sha rediscovers those utensils that have been discarded and uses them for tea utensils” (Cort 1979:130). Wabi was not only an aesthetic of rusticity, poverty, and deprivation, but also something a chajin must master to display their discrimination, innovativeness, and eclecticism (Takeshi 2007:88). A tea bowl repaired or remade, along with its container, inscriptions, and textile wrappings signalled “the owner’s lineage, the legacy he has inherited as a member of the tea community” (Takeshi 2007:86) as well as his ability to reinvent and play with the wares. The ‘signs of affection’ from celebrated previous owners were important facets of wabi objects and imbued them with greater significance and monetary value.
Raku, Rikyū, and Revolution: Sen no Rikyū (1522-1591) and Furuta Oribe (1544-1615)
Rikyū wholeheartedly embraced the aesthetics of wabi sabi, emphasizing the relative beauty of earth and its symbolic connotations of temporality and mortality (Raku 2011:55,57). Expressing his new style through ceramics, Rikyū loved the koraimono bowls and placed orders at Seto, Shigaraki, Bizen and other popular kilns, but favoured the pure black bowls make by the Tanaka (later, Raku) family, “saying that they convey the solemnity of old things” (Takeshi 2007:90). Chōjirō (d. 1589), son of a Fujianese susancai artisan, was a sculptor and tile-maker, whose family workshop was commissioned (probably in the 1570’s) by Rikyū to make the first chawan intended exclusively for chanoyu (Raku 2011:12,17). The hand-forming technique (opposite to the wheel-thrown techniques used at other kilns), the trimming with spatulas and scrapers, as well as the low-firing and lead glazing process (likely their own invention, later copied in Seto and Mino) allowed for dynamic and “highly distinctive, original forms” with a “subdued yet complex surface,” evincing the character of the native clay and of the artisan themselves (Raku 2011:2018; Takeshi 2007:90). The process of forming resonates with the ideals of Zen and wabicha: it “reflects the internal human struggle” and becomes “a fusion of the natural and the intentional” (Raku 2011:39-40). An inward-curved lip embodies the introspective quality of wabicha. Moreover, the low-temperature firing creates a soft, porous bowl that insulates and conveys a pleasant warmth and moisture to the hands (Raku 2011:42). The Raku family describe the spirit of what was then dubbed “imayaki” (contemporary ceramics) as one of unpretentious individuality, “concealed intensity” with a “sense of gentle warmth” that is a “direct expression of the heart” and the times in which the artist lives (Raku 2011:33). Following Rikyū’s forced suicide, wabicha was elevated to a religious status, thus becoming more accessible to and coveted by the public; it therefore comes as no surprise that archeological excavation reveals several Raku branch kilns, as well as countless imitations of so-called Chōjirō ware (Raku 2011:20,35).
At the close of the Muromachi (1333-1568), the migration of Seto potters to less war-stricken areas in Mino brought to the burgeoning middle class the warm ki-Seto (yellow seto) ware, Seto-guro (black, using Chojiro’s method) ware, and shino (“thick crackled feldspathic glaze”) (Seattle 1972:28). Western Japan also witnessed a boom of kiln-building by highly-skilled Korean potters following Hideyoshi’s invasions of Korea in the 1590’s (Cort 1992:10). Two Korean brothers established a kiln in Hagi, which led to the introduction of cream-coloured Hagi bowls “second only in stature to Raku” for the “subtle complexity” of their irregularities, and the “warm, soft hue” of their clay (Takeshi 2007:92). Additionally, the Korean-founded kilns in Karatsu, Agano, Satsuma, and Takatori (later patronized by Kobori Enshū) immediately gained favour from sukisha endlessly hungry for the easy, spontaneous forms, rough quality of the clay, and the unassuming decoration (or lack thereof) for their wabicha (Seattle 1972:30-31). Beginning in the late 1580’s, kōraimono and rough karamono, although still in use and considered standard in orthodox taste, were gradually supplanted by these kuni-yaki (native wares) (Cort 1979:164). The unglazed portions of the ware allowed a visual and tactile appreciation of the geographically-specific clay and its peculiarities, while the glazed portion highlighted the technique of application (Mitsuoka 1960:174). The opening of said kilns made possible the production of custom orders for merchant chajin (Cort 1979:166, 171), thus introducing the bourgeois society to new possibilities of visual richness that contrasted the sombre mood established by Rikyū (Seattle 1972:29). The arbiter of this new taste was Rikyū’s contemporary, Furuta Oribe, whose name is immortalized in the copper green ware produced by the Mino kilns. He was notorious for breaking codified rules of teaware juxtaposition, displaying novel teaware combinations incorporating geometric and western-inspired patterns, and technically innovative “assertive forms” such as his kutsugata (shoe-shaped) and rectangular-molded bowls (Cort 1979:170, Seattle 1972:29). Raku characterizes an Oribe teabowl by its “huge distortion and overstatement accompanying the brilliant contrast of black and white” (Raku 2011:61) — quite opposite to Rikyū’s aesthetic. Oribe also engendered a resurgence in the use of found objects. In one account purportedly cracking and repairing a Korean bowl, shrinking it to suit his taste (Takeshi 2007:82).
Return to the Shoin and the Sōan: Kobori Enshū (1579-1647) and Sen Sōtan (1578-1658)
The dawn of the Edo period (1615-1868) saw the established and formalized use of kuni-yaki in the tea rooms of the elite merchants and the Daimyo, due in part to the activities of Kobori Enshū, a prominent official of the Tokugawa Shogunate. He was concerned with refining the Daimyo tastes and reviving classical tea as a viewing-party for outstanding artworks. Karamono thus regained some popularity (Cort 1992:23). While the upper-classes hunted for (sometimes falsely) ‘certified’ meibutsu gari (famous art objects) of “politico-artistic value” to “satiate their materialistic desires… enhance the aura of their tea ceremonies” and elevate their status (Hur 2015:13-14), Enshū developed an urbane sense of kirei wabi (elegant austerity), thus popularizing newly-emerging, elegant wares from certain kilns with which he was likely involved (The seven kilns of Enshū: Zeze, Shidoro, Asahi, Akahada, Kosobe, Agano, and Takatori) (Cort 1979:170; Maske 2011:3). Meanwhile, his counterpart, Sen Sōtan (third generation of the Sen family), was busy in Kyoto, codifying and perpetuating Rikyū’s wabicha ideals and practices (Cort 1979:172).
For those who could not procure original meibutsu gari teabowls, production began of utsushi (copies). Frequently, these were made in the Kyoto area to facilitate logistics for merchants (Cort 1979:190). It became necessary for potters and importers to cater to the more conservative Daimyo, for whom chanoyu was now a “well-codified social interaction rather than the experimental aesthetic adventure it had once been” (Maske 2011:118). Inspired by the activities of Enshū and Sōtan, artists in the Kan’ei era (1624-44) also created a brief 16th century revival period, characterized by a “’thinner,’ more studied mood” (Cort 1979:174). However, the taste for kuni-yaki teabowls had not completely eradicated the chajin’s love for kōraimono, which continued to be popular into the Edo era and came full circle in the 1640’s with the Korean production of export teabowls (Hur 2015:5; Takeshi 2007:94). However, the popularity of chanoyu ceremony itself was now in decline, succumbing to the tide of a more Chinese-style sencha ceremony.
Mass-Market in the Meiji
The late Edo and early Meiji saw a resurgence of demand for teaware, but mostly for school groups and young women, for whom chanoyu became a means of “bridal training,” or for middle-aged women wishing to accrue some cultural capital and increase their status (Kato 2004: 61, 67). This was accommodated by the westernization and “transformation of manufacturing and merchandising methods in the meiji era” (Cort 1979:299). Cort is referring to the conversion of traditional kilns (to gas or electric) following charcoal shortages, and the commercialization of teaware (especially in department stores) (Kato 2004: 86). A renewal of interest in “’chance’ elegance of unglazed material” with the mingei (folk craft) movement of the 1920’s brought a modified Raku technique to the United states, which began the western teabowl trend (Cort 1979:298). Traditional pieces, as well as avante-garde work, continue to be produced by individual potters, such as the Raku family (Raku 2011:295) on a small scale for the few collector-practitioner sukisha and non-practitioner connoisseurs; Nonetheless, the bulk of current ware is mass produced to suit a broad range of tastes and budgets more moderate than those of nobles and Daimyo.
Conclusion
The tea bowl has always been one of the most important ‘near’ objects in the tea ceremony, and its aesthetics evolved under the influences of numerous, sometimes opposing, forces. These forces that have nurtured the modern fruition of myriad aesthetic variations; entire books have been written on the aesthetic evolutions of individual geographic areas, not to mention individual artisans. Although the tea ceremony today is relegated largely to the classroom, many craftspeople continue to make tea bowls for display and alternative functions.
References:
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