Raku Style Red Tea Bowl with ‘Raku’ Seal

Description

Since the late sixteenth century, red has competed with black as a favored color for teabowls. Red bowls come in an astonishingly wide range of colors, from a rusty orange to a pale pink. They are made with a clear glaze over red slip (thin, watery clay). Although this bowl bears a seal reading "raku," here it probably indicates the style rather than the maker of the bowl. Similarities to pottery made in western Japan suggest that this bowl may come from a workshop in the Hagi or Karatsu area. The bowl demonstrates the wide appeal of the Raku technique to tea practitioners of late Edo-period Japan.
Exhibited in "Japanese Costumes & Ceramics, Past & Present," October 2001-February 2002. Maribeth Graybill, Senior Curator of Asian Art