Red Raku ware shallow tea bowl

Description

Since the late sixteenth century, red has competed with black as a favored color for Raku ware tea bowls. Red Raku 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). The term Raku in Japanese pottery can refer either to a lineage of makers or to a style: 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.
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Raku ware shallow tea bowl
Japan, Edo period
(1615–1868)
19th century
Earthenware with red glaze
Bequest of Margaret Watson Parker, 1954/1.536
Since the late sixteenth century, red has competed with black as a favored color for Raku ware tea bowls. Red Raku 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). The term Raku in Japanese pottery can refer either to a lineage of makers or to a style: 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.
(6/28/10)
Box inscription: "hira aka chawan" (shallow red tea bowl). Raku seal needs further research.