Raku style gray tea bowl

Description

1. Sen Sôshu X
Japan, 1913–1999
Raku style tea bowl
Showa period (1926–1989)
circa 1960
Earthenware with gray glaze
Museum purchase, 1963/2.71
This unusually deep bowl in a warm, gray glaze is by the tenth-generation head of the Mushanokôji Senke School of Tea, one of three tea lineages founded by the sons of the renowned master Sen Rikyû (1523–1591). Successive generations of tea masters in each of these schools produced handmade tea bowls in the Raku style, often as gifts for their patrons and pupils. Since the late Momoyama period (1583–1615), Raku ware has been made primarily by the descendents of Raku Chôjirô (d. 1589) and Sen Rikyû.
In evaluating a tea bowl from a tea master, one looks not for slick professional skill but for traces of the maker’s character. One might imagine that the generous, rounded shape of this tea bowl reflects an open, magnanimous personality.
(Turning Point exhibition, Spring 2010)
This unusually deep bowl in a warm gray glaze is said to be by Sen Sôshu X, the tenth-generation head of the Mushanokôji School of Tea. In evaluating a teabowl from a tea master, one looks not for slick professional skill, but for traces of the maker’s character. The generous, rounded shape of this teabowl seems to reflect an open, magnanimous personality.
The Mushanokôji School is one of three tea lineages founded by the sons of Sen no Rikyû. Successive generations of tea masters in each of these schools produced handmade teabowls in the Raku style, often as gifts to their patrons and pupils.
Exhibited in "Japanese Costumes & Ceramics, Past & Present," October 2001-February 2002. Maribeth Graybill, Senior Curator of Asian Art
Sen no Rikyû (1522–1591), tea master to Japan’s most powerful warlords in the late sixteenth century, championed the use of humble materials in the tea ceremony. Instead of expensive imported Chinese celadon or bronze flower vases, for example, he carved his own from bamboo in his own garden. Rikyû encouraged the Kyoto potter Chôjirô (1515–1592) to develop a new type of tea bowl, known as raku ware, formed by hand and fired in a simple, pit-like chamber. Chôjirô’s distinctive, thick-walled tea bowls set the standard for works by later generations of the Raku family, such as UMMA 1954/1.537 and 2000/1.30.
From "Silk Road to Clipper Ship: Trade, Changing Markets, and East Asian Ceramics."
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This unusually deep bowl in a warm, gray glaze is by the tenth-generation head of the Mushanokôji Senke School of Tea, one of three tea lineages founded by the sons of the renowned master Sen Rikyû (1523–1591). Successive generations of tea masters in each of these schools produced handmade tea bowls in the Raku style, often as gifts for their patrons and pupils. Since the late Momoyama period (1583–1615), Raku ware has been made primarily by the descendents of Raku Chôjirô (d. 1589) and Sen Rikyû.
In evaluating a tea bowl from a tea master, one looks not for slick professional skill but for traces of the maker’s character. One might imagine that the generous, rounded shape of this tea bowl reflects an open, magnanimous personality.
(Turning Point exhibition, Spring 2010)