The Japanese Tea Bowl Creation Process

[Brian Reed]

I have been drawn to the Japanese style of pottery for mostof my potting life. I like the forms andthe functional nature of the style. Isometimes go to the Chinese or Korean style with brighter colors or geometrictexture patters, but for the most part I do like the style. I have watched many people, and many videosof people both Japanese and Caucasian making tea bowls and some observationsthat I have made make me wonder the state of mind or technique in making such avessel.

 

In my opinion when watching the most advanced masters itlooks effortless and usually quiet with a humble potter, sitting on the floorwith their wheel inset and a bucket of water and a large lump of clay and theyare throwing off the hump. There can beany variation of this and substitutes for western style wheels andstudios. From my observations there is asense that the clay (from the earth) has a way in which it wants to be formedand the potter is merely the hands that help that already destined form todevelop. Slow movements, strong handswith a gentle touch. What emerges is a beautifulform with elegant lines and a functional purpose. All is well.

 

This is where my two paths diverge. The pots that I have seen and respect the mostare then cut off and the process is started for the next one. The pots that I do not understand and theones where the potter pushes his own will on what the pot will look like. With unnatural cuts or blemishes made withtools or even the hands. Pushing and squishingthe tea bowl into something that is not natural at all.

 

My question on aesthetics is which is the proper way inwhich to makes these. I must admit Ihave made tea bowls and really let the clay do what it wanted to do. When the vessel was complete I cut it off anddid a simple trim the next day and then used a shino or temoku glaze. I know there is a place for an exacting potand a place for altered pots where you instill your will on the clay, but in myopinion this is not one of them.

 

Please share your thoughts is you have one on the subject.

 

[Guest JBaymore]

I have been drawn to the Japanese style of pottery for mostof my potting life. I like the forms andthe functional nature of the style. Isometimes go to the Chinese or Korean style with brighter colors or geometrictexture patters, but for the most part I do like the style. I have watched many people, and many videosof people both Japanese and Caucasian making tea bowls and some observationsthat I have made make me wonder the state of mind or technique in making such avessel.

 

In my opinion when watching the most advanced masters itlooks effortless and usually quiet with a humble potter, sitting on the floorwith their wheel inset and a bucket of water and a large lump of clay and theyare throwing off the hump. There can beany variation of this and substitutes for western style wheels andstudios. From my observations there is asense that the clay (from the earth) has a way in which it wants to be formedand the potter is merely the hands that help that already destined form todevelop. Slow movements, strong handswith a gentle touch. What emerges is a beautifulform with elegant lines and a functional purpose. All is well.

 

This is where my two paths diverge. The pots that I have seen and respect the mostare then cut off and the process is started for the next one. The pots that I do not understand and theones where the potter pushes his own will on what the pot will look like. With unnatural cuts or blemishes made withtools or even the hands. Pushing and squishingthe tea bowl into something that is not natural at all.

 

My question on aesthetics is which is the proper way inwhich to makes these. I must admit Ihave made tea bowls and really let the clay do what it wanted to do. When the vessel was complete I cut it off anddid a simple trim the next day and then used a shino or temoku glaze. I know there is a place for an exacting potand a place for altered pots where you instill your will on the clay, but in myopinion this is not one of them.

 

Please share your thoughts is you have one on the subject.

 

 

 

 

 

Brian,

 

I am about to teach a class the collge at the moment, so no time for details.

 

However I teach classes onmaking Chawan, on Chado (TeaCeremony) and Japanese Ceramic Art History. If you afre focusing on the more traditional aspects of chawan AS Chawan within the context of actual ceremony (Chanoyu) use..... which from your comments it seems you are ....... then the starting point to make devent Chawan is to study TEA a bit....not just clay. There are a lot of aspects/attributes that chajin (Tea Poeple) look for in Chawan. To understand these .... you have to spend time in various Chakai (tea gatherings) and using the implements.

 

That is one of the best pieces of fast advice I c an share.

 

best,

 

......................john

[OffCenter]

Obviously, John is the one to give advice on this subject and on this side of the Pacific there'd be no better teacher, but I have one observation: I believe that were you to say "From my observations there is asense that the clay (from the earth) has a way in which it wants to be formedand the potter is merely the hands that help that already destined form todevelop." to an old Japanese master potter, he might reply, "Yes, grasshopper, you are right" then laugh his ass off in his head.

 

Jim

[Idaho Potter]

I once took a raku workshop with Richard Hirsch, and from his slide presentation gathered he was well versed in making tea bowls. He demonstrated throwing a tea bowl on the wheel and then spent (what I thought was) an inordinate amount of time scraping the inside of the bowl with a spoon. I asked why, and was told this was how he was taught. So, John--to whom I address all questions seeking wisdom--have you ever heard of this? Rick said he was immersed in the "world of tea" while learning in Japan, but I couldn't understand why the bowl wasn't just thrown and let be. If there is a deeper meaning, I missed it.

 

Shirley

[Guest JBaymore]

I once took a raku workshop with Richard Hirsch, and from his slide presentation gathered he was well versed in making tea bowls. He demonstrated throwing a tea bowl on the wheel and then spent (what I thought was) an inordinate amount of time scraping the inside of the bowl with a spoon. I asked why, and was told this was how he was taught. So, John--to whom I address all questions seeking wisdom--have you ever heard of this? Rick said he was immersed in the "world of tea" while learning in Japan, but I couldn't understand why the bowl wasn't just thrown and let be. If there is a deeper meaning, I missed it.

 

Shirley

 

No time right now for a long answer Shirley, but the short answer is ....... VERY traditional nature of forming for Japanese makers.

 

In fact, real Raku bowls (little resemblence to current American Raku process) are actually more carved than any other forming process. I teach this in classes. Not a forming method that is typically used much in the West...... other than for certain tyopes of ceramic sculpture.

 

best,

 

...............john

[Benzine]

John,

 

To me, it seems Japanese ceramicists love to focus on imperfections in their pots, things that are slightly off-center, or otherwise misshapen. Would this be a fair analysis?

 

My Dad learned from one of Hamada's former students, in college. The guy would throw a large bowl, and then "punch" it, leaving huge indents in it.

[TJR]

John;

I was at our city art gallery yesterday. My former prof is having a show there, which opened on Friday. He is known for his big wood fired [anagama], style lidded jars and bottles.

He had one raku piece in a showcase, at eye level. It was biggish, for a tea bowl, but he's a big man. The form was beautiful, but I noticed big hunks of grog almost tearing out the side from trimming.It was a pinkish colour, with Hakame slip [thickly brushed], but what was really noticeable was that he had poured a cobalt blue slip across the bottom as he held it by the foot. Very different aesthetic.

Made we want to make some. I am slightly familiar with the tea ceremony [saw it once at NCECA,Madison, Wisconsin.]This is not anything that I have any expertise with, but I can see the attraction to want to make some.

TJR.

My question? What is the connection between raku and tea? I know about Hamada and Leach making and firing raku pots for dinner guests.

T.

[Guest JBaymore]

To me, it seems Japanese ceramicists love to focus on imperfections in their pots, things that are slightly off-center, or otherwise misshapen. Would this be a fair analysis?

 

My question? What is the connection between raku and tea?

 

 

As a matter of fact, I am doing the keynote lecture at the New Hampshire Art Educators Association annual meeting that is being held at the Currier Museum of Art ( http://www.currier.org/nowonview.aspx ) that is being held in conjunction with the"Lethal Beauty" exhibition there of Samurai period weapons, armor, and other artwork. A good part of this presentation will tend to focus on this very subject, as I tie together the centuries and centuries of the martial state and civil strife with the development of the arts of the period.....particularly ceramics.

 

It takes a semester-long 3 credit BFA art history course (History of Japanese Ceramics) for me to actually trace the development and evolution of the Japanese ceramic arts from the proto-Jomon period to contemporary work, and the impact that the Tea Ceremony (Chanoyu) had in the midst of this development cannot really be understated. The evolving nature of Chado (The Way of Tea) in Japan had a profound impact on the broader cultural tastes in pretty much all of the arts, not just ceramics. However, because of the pre-eminent role that ceramic objects had (have) in Chanoyu, particularly the Chaire (Tea Caddy) and Chawan (Tea Bowl), the art of ceramics was profoundly impacted by the changes in "tastes" in what was (and still is) considered "proper" Teawares (Chadogu).

 

The short story (yeah,….this is the really short version) on the connection between Raku and Tea...................

 

In the time leading up to what we might think of as the current "modern" tea aesthetics, the various Daimiyo (Feudal Lords) were pretty much in a constant state of civil warfare and were vying for political power and position. Really,from the beginning of the Yayoi Period (400 BCE) with the influx of new iron weapon wielding peoples into Japan supplanting the old culture, through the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 cementing the relatively peaceful Tokugawa Shogunate….. Japan was in a constant state of overt civil war and under what amounted to martial law (or even what might be called anarchy). Basically 2000 years of civil strife! That fact had a PROFOUND impact on Japanese cultural development that affects the underpinnings of Japanese culture even to this day.

 

By the 1580s an upwardly mobile guy named Hashiba Hideyoshi had risen from a simple warlord’s servant to Samurai warrior to General in Oda Nobonaga’s armies, to finally THE leading power figure (not Shogun….but Kampaku) in Feudal Japan who had more or less "unified" Japan (not completely... but that is the kind of material for the undergrad course).

 

Eventually Hashiba was given the Samurai-class family name of Toyotomi……. the name most know him by today. Once this happened, he “slammed the door†on anyone following in his footsteps… making it unlawful (impossible) for a commoner to become a Samurai anymore, and also outlawed commoners from bearing swords (or any weapons). In this, he basically finalized the developing formalized Class distinctions of Japan sitting below the Imperial House……. Samurai, Peasant, Artisan, and Merchant…. and above the Eta (“untouchablesâ€).

 

Since the Imperial House was basically a puppet figurehead of the State at the total mercy of the Samurai, the Samurai ruled the land in the name of the Emperor.

 

Toyotomi Hideyoshi was known for wanting to put his poor commoner (non-Samurai class) origins behind him and, once rich and in power, he was prone to totally ostentatious displays of wealth. He was always trying to show how powerful and cultured he was to everyone around him..... particularly the rival Daimiyo. His, and hence others in powerful positions, approach to Chanoyu was to use the most precious and opulent settings and utensils possible. It was all about “showing offâ€.

 

His Chado mentor/teacher was a particular chajin (Teaman) known as Sen no Rikkyu, who was a student of another great Teaman of the period, Takeno Joo. Takeno and Rikkyu both found the ostentatious tea gatherings of Hideyoshi and his cohorts and the use of absurdly expensive Chadogu to be very much an "affected"stance, and in Joo’s and Rikkyu's opinion, unbefitting the Zen roots of a lot of the developing Tea Ceremony philosophy. The “peak†of this pretentious craziness was the Kitano Ochanoyu, or “The Great Tea Ceremony at Kitano†in 1585.

 

So as a reaction to all of this grandiose posturing of the Daimiyo with all their finest imported Chinese Chadogu and solid gold objects and tea rooms, Rikkyu started to promote the use of more "everyday" common and rustic objects as THE proper way to select the settings for Tea and the objects used in the Ceremony. It was a turn of the viewpoint to the internal, both in the view toward the value of traditional Japanese-produced objects, as well as a focus toward the more spiritual (but still actually non-religious) aspects of a tea experience. He moved Tea away from a outwardly focused “posturingâ€approach, and toward a “interpersonal relations†and “being totally in the moment†approach. A move from extroversion toward introversion.

 

In addition to being a Tea Master, Rikkyu also eventually became a "designer". He began to not only select and promote objects that he thought were superior Chadogu....... he also began to make some objects and also commission pieces to be made to fit his tastes and ideas. His views at this time had a profound impact on the nature of Chanoyu. Tearooms shrank in size from HUGE halls in elaborate Daimyo castles to specially constructed rooms that were based upon commoner’s huts (but still constructed with the utmost in craftsmanship considerations). Rikkyu greatly favored things like the common cheap rice bowls found in Korea for use as Chawan.

 

Rikkyu approached a roof tile maker in the Kyoto area who made some of the rooftiles for Hideyoshi’s castle, and had him produce a new type of Chawan specifically to his specifications. Roof tiles in Japan at that time were hand-builtand the ridge-line tiles and eaves tiles were often highly sculptural figurative works featuring Shinto and Buddhist dieties and icons. Chojiro’s father had emigrated to Japan from China, and he was a Sancai (Japanese….sansai ……three color lead glazed earthenware) potter. So the lead glazing and earthenware firing process were well known to Chojiro before he produced the new style of Chawan for Rikkyu.

 

In a sense, while he worked with clay, Chojiro was really a sculptor, not a potter. So this tilemaker, Chojiro, was very familiar with hand-building and sculptural techniques…..one of which is carving and modeling work from clay. So it would seem that a “comfortable†forming technique for Chojiro to make these new bowls for Rikkyu would naturally tend toward the basic forming by modeling the rough shape of the bowl…. what we’d maybe call pinching a basic thick form…….. and then further refining by carving the thick form into the very light weight piece necessary for proper Chanoyu. That is the core technique for forming a Raku Chawan.

 

The tea wares made by Chojiro were, to Rikkyu’s specifications, very quiet and unassuming. Deliberately rustic by design. The very lowly low-fire earthenware process moved these pieces far away from the Chinese wares formerly in favor of the various Daimyo and developing upper-crust Merchant class of the time. Yet within their seeming simplicity at first glance, upon careful inspection, the variations caused by the hand carving forming process and the simple primitive firing process caused subtle variations in the form and glaze surface that could take many viewings to really understand. This type of object fitted the contemplative aspects of Rikkyu’s new Chado focus well.

 

Originally this work was called Ima-yaki (“now potteryâ€) ….because it was something totally new. But because of the great reception given to these sculpted earthenware bowls lauded on them from Rikkyu and his many followers, Hideyoshi soon granted Chojiro the use of the characterfor “leisure†or “contentment†as a designation for the new types of wares he produced and also as a family name ( 楽). That character is pronounced “rakuâ€, and was a part of the formal name of Hideyoshi’s castle, Jurakudai Palace. That Raku family name and ware type has now passed down unbroken for 14 generations.

 

Joo, Rikkyu, and Chojiro’s ideas and work in the mid to late 1500s are the advent of the teaware (and other artwork) tastes that are known today as “wabi-sabiâ€, and the Tea Ceremonies based upon its tenets known as“Wabi-cha†or sometimes “Sooan-chaâ€. Wabi-sabi is the finding of deep beauty in the inherent and inexorable deterioration of time on absolutely everything and the formal appreciation of the rustic, unrefined,and imperfect.

 

This aesthetic approach has pervaded much of Japanese ceramics from the Momoyama Period until today, and hence the focus onthe “imperfectâ€, the asymmetrical, the unassuming, and the unrefined forms one finds in many ceramic pieces since that time and even today. Materiality figures in here heavily also; ceramic material exhibiting the genesis of earth and fire working naturally together. The wabi-sabi aesthetic greatly fits a world-view born of centuries of warfare, sudden violent death, the Samurai’s fatalism, and a formal Shinto religious background that focuses on the natural events in the world (in Japan….typhoons, earthquakes, and fires), and the Buddhist belief that desire is the root of human suffering.

 

Hideyoshi was the warlord that ordered his vassal Daimyo to invade Korea (and then his plan was to also take over China). Aside from grandiose attempts at power, this plan was also devised to cause the various warlords “under†his rule to be tied up financially and to have their troops occupied elsewhere…. thereby minimizing the threat to his own power from any plots that might hatch against him. This was the time also known as “The Pottery Wars†…when Hideoshi’s generals captured whole villages of Korean potters and brought them back to Japan to create “traditional†Korean wares for Chanoyu use. Many of these potters founded the Kyushu and southern Honshu potteries that have great favor today …. like Hagi and Karatsu.

 

Eventually (1591) Hideyoshi ordered Sen no Rikkyu to commit seppuku (hara kiri …. stomach cutting…….. the Samurai’s ritual suicide method). A death with Samurai honors…. but a death nonetheless. No one knows for sure why……… there are no good documents that reveal the facts behind it. But likely it was because Sen was gaining political power and influence that threatened Hideyoshi in some manner. Tea Ceremony was a powerful cultural practice that extended throughout all of upper Japanese society at that time both within the Samurai class and also the developing and powerfully rich Merchant class that had strong ties into the “Southern Barbarians†(Nanban….. the Westerners who had started trade with Japan). And one has to wonder if Rikku’s focus on the “common†types of objects and setting was a bit of a sore point between the former commoner warlord and his Tea Master. Hideyoshi wanted nothing to do with an association with “common-nessâ€.

 

Japanese history is deep. Tradition being a very powerful force in Japan to this day, the traditions developed in the mid 1500s continue to influence Chanoyu and other aspects of Japanese culture and artwork. The three major schools of tea (Chado) in the world today, Omotesenke, Urasenke, and MushakÅjisenke, trace their roots directly back to Sen no Rikkyu himself. The most prized native origin teabowls for Chanoyu continue to be Raku wares, which command pretty astronomical prices.

 

Hope that helps to put things into some context for you.

 

(Gonna’ put a >>> © 2013- john Baymore all rights reserved <<<<<on this posting…..might use some of it somewhere later.)

 

best,

 

.............john

[Benzine]

Very interesting John. Thank you for taking the time to post it.

[Bette]

Fascinating, John - this history helps me understand much, thank you!

[TJR]

John;

Thank-you for taking the time to post. That was a great read.It also cleared up some questions for me.

TJR.

[Guest JBaymore]

Benzine, Betty, and TJR.......

 

No problem. Glad it was useful.

 

best,

 

..............john