Tea bowl
at the Oxford Ceramics Gallery, Walton Street, Oxford.
The tea bowl, or chawan, originated in China. The earliest tea bowls in Japan were imported from China between the 13th and the 16th centuries. By the end of the 14th century, as the custom of tea drinking spread throughout Japan tea bowls became desired objects by all ranks of society, and the Japanese began to make their own copies, preferring the bowls with a tapered shape. With the rise of the wabi tea ceremony a variety of Korean bowls, mainly used for rice in Korea, also became highly prized in Japan. They were favourites because of their rough simplicity. With time and the development of the Japanese tea ceremony as a distinct form, local ceramics got more expensive and more developed. Raku fired tea bowls were one of the most esteemed pieces for a tea ceremony.
'Tea is of a light colour and looks best in black cups. The cups made at Jianyang are bluish-black in colour, marked like the fur of a hare. Being of rather thick fabric they retain the heat, so that when once warmed through they cool very slowly, and they are additionally valued on this account', wrote one resident of the Fijian district.
This was a wonderful exhibition. The prices of the Japanese tea bowls were extremely high.
Anna Lambert (UK)
Anna Lambert (UK)
Tatsuzo Shimaoka (Japan)
The Japanese tea bowls were sold with stylish wooden boxes.
Wouter Dam (Netherlands)
Ashley Howard (UK)
Ashley Howard (UK)
looking in
Dan Kelly (UK)
On the mantelpiece were a series of tiny, tiny tea bowls, made by Yuta Segawa (UK), which you can see in the four photographs below:
Ryoiji Koie (Japan), bowl with wooden box
Akiro Satake (USA)
Akiro Satake (USA)
Akiro Satake (USA)
Akiro Satake (USA)
Charles Bound (UK)
Charles Bound (UK)
Eddie Curtis (UK)
Eddie Curtis (UK)
looking closer at the rich texture
Eddie Curtis (UK)
Barry Stedman (UK)
Barry Stedman (UK)
Niisato Akio (Japan)
Shozo Michikawa (Japan)
looking in
Shozo Michikawa (Japan)
looking in
Shozo Michikawa (Japan)
Shozo Michikawa (Japan)
Shozo Michikawa (Japan)
and the box
Shozo Michikawa, (Japan)
Akiko Hirai (UK)
Gordon Crosby (UK)
Such exciting pieces! And in an elegant gallery which I remember passing every day as a junk shop. But that was decades ago.
ReplyDeleteSome lovely pieces there, I really enjoyed having a look around. I too remember the junk shop - they had some furniture and china outside if I remember correctly.
DeleteMust get making! A x
ReplyDeleteI see you're a pot person, too! #Wish I could have got to this one. I just bought a Svend Bayer pot on ebay - another "Gnarly Dude", like Charles Bound.
ReplyDeleteI am indeed, Marian. So nice, to know that you are too. And how lovely that you just bought a Svend Bayer pot. Enjoy it. I know how exciting it is acquiring a new ceramic.
DeleteI went to the Oxford Ceramics Fair on Sunday - 60 makers of the highest quality. It was very good. It's always one of the high points of the autumn.
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