Japanese & Oriental Ceramic. Hazel H. Gorham
and autumn colours of yellow and brown.
Kosobe;—wares unknown until 1625 when they were popularized by Enshu.
Zeze;—originated in 1630 at the command of Ishikawa Tadatsuna, Lord of Zeze under the direction of Enshu. The wares have golden or reddish brown and purplish glazes over a dark grey fine grained biscuit. These wares are much like those of Takatori and Seto.
Agano;—kilns started by Hosokawa Tadaoki (known also as Sansai) in 1602 when he employed a naturalized Korean potter. At first very Korean in style, the wares later became similar to Takatori wares.
Takatori;—an ancient kiln which developed when Kuroda Nagamasa brought back with him from Korea potters named Shinkuro and Hachizo. Wares have dull coffee brown, yellow or rich purple black spotted glazes and bluish grey flambe.
Asahi;—founded about 1600 by Okumura Jirozayemon. 1645 Enshu supervised Okumura Tosaku in making tea bowls, of light brown or light blue glaze on a coarse biscuit. 1830-1873 a potter named Chobei Matsubayashi produced modern wares.
Akahada;—started about 1580 but discontinued until about 1645 when it was revived by Nonomura Ninsei. The wares resemble Takatori or Hagi pearl grey crackled glaze clouded with salmon pink. Enshu had cha no yu utensils made here under his direction.
Hon ami (written also Honnami or Hon Ami) Koyetsu, born 1557 died 1637, was a direct pupil of Oribe. He was originally a connoisseur of swords but through the study of cha no yu became interested in pottery and became a skillful potter. He studied pottery-making with Jokei the second raku master and was noted for his skill in the use of the bamboo spatula for trimming tea bowls into shape. His grandson Ko ho (1601-1682) known also as Kuchu sai or just Kuchu also made raku wares after his manner. Kuchu's productions are rare and valuable today.
The name of Matsudaira Fumai Harusan (1751-1818) who was the feudal Lord of Matsuye in Izumo Province is of importance in any consideration of Japanese pottery. He was a cha jin but was especially interested in ceramics. For his own use he designed and ordered made certain tea wares; he was fond of well made "exquisite" rather than rugged wares. Another of his contributions to ceramics was the compilation of twelve catalogues listing and describing famous cha no yu potteries.
It was the cha jin, tea devotees, who rescued from oblivion, and taught the satisfying beauty of ancient and excavated ceramic wares overlooked by less discerning collectors and during the ages that cha no yu has been the great national pastime bowls from widely different sources have given pleasure to many.
Among the best known are Temmoku cha wan, bowls which were used for serving tea to monks of the Zen sect temple at Tienmu Shan in Chekiang, China. These bowls were not much admired in China, they were cheap and available but in Japan they are priceless. These are of blackish or bluish brown, a hard thin stone ware, conical in shape with a rather small footrim or base. In China they are called Chien-yao (yao means kiln wares) and were made at Fukien during the Sung dynasty.
Temmoku tea bowl, the so-called yuteki or oil-spot Temmoku. Note the irregular welt formed by the glaze, called maku or curtain formation by the Japanese.
Korean Halauji, or white ware, bowls used in the country of their origin for serving rice at the daily meal are admired by many. These are of thick, greyish white ware of a rather, to the uninitiated, obscure uninteresting flat bowl shape with thick heavy footrim or base.
Another form of Ternmokn tea bowls with the design of the hoo bird drawn under the glaze.
Kurawanka cha wan, is a less well known but very interesting kind of tea bowl of a thick hastily potted ware with a soft thick glaze, decorated in under-the-glaze blue designs drawn with a sure firm hand. The glaze is thick, uneven and pleasant to the touch. These bowls are interesting because they are of pure Japanese origin and have historical associations. At the end of the sixteenth century when Tokugawa Iyeyasu was struggling to establish his power throughout Japan, the boatmen on the Yodogawa River between Osaka and Kyoto furnished him timely aid at a crisis in his war career. In gratitude Iyeyasu granted them and their discendants the privilege of selling food from boats to the pleasure seekers on this river. Because of being signaled out by this honour these boatmen became proud and overbearing. "Kurawanka" is a vulgar or colloquial expression for the more polite "meshi agarimasenka" meaning roughly the equivalent the American "Get your hot dogs here." These bowls at that time were included in the small price of the food offered and were frequently simply thrown overboard when emptied. The custom of selling food in this ware has been abandoned but now fishermen make a living retrieving the bowls from the river bottom.
Oribe
Of all the names mentioned in any discussion of Japanese pottery that of Furuta Oribe no Sho is most often heard. He was born in 1544 and died in 1615, a period when cha do culture was at its best and he is known as Chajin Oribe—that is, Oribe, Master Teacher of Ceremonial Tea. He served under three war lords: Oda Nobunaga, who died at the hand of one of his own retainers just as he had completed national unification after a long period of civil wars; Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who continued the work of unification and who in pursuance of a progressive imperialistic policy died while commanding the invasion of a foreign country; and Tokugawa Iyeyasu whose strong centralizing policy succeeded in completely systematizing Japan as a feudalistic state and enforcing the policy of seclusion. A time also that was a kind of Renaissance in Japan, later to be known as the Momoyama Period.
Typical Oribe shapes and designs.
Oribe was born in Mino, near Seto the ceramic center of Japan. His real name was Furuta Shigeyoshi or Shigenari and he was the son of Furuta Shigesada, called also Kan ami, who had been a priest but who left the orders and became a retainer of Hideyoshi with the title of Gemba no Sho. He served as samurai or man of arms under Oda Nobunaga until that leader's death in 1582. Serving under Hideyoshi, Oribe was created a daimyo, or feudal lord, in 1585. In this capacity he was put in charge of a castle in the neighbourhood of Kyoto. It was at this time that he made the acquaintance of Sen Rikyu and became his pupil in matters concerning cha no yu.
In 1585 Hideyoshi held his famous tea party at his palace of Ju raku and many great tea masters attended. Although one of the most important pupils of Sen Rikyu, Oribe was at that time but little known. On the death of Hideyoshi, Oribe joined the forces of Tokugawa Iyeyasu. In 1610 he became the tea teacher of Hidetada, son of Iyeyasu and second Shogun. It was then that his position as tea master became established. Daimyos, small and great, competed with one another to become his pupils and in building houses for cha no yu according to his designs and in acquiring art objects which met with his approval. Consequently his taste was predominant at this period.
In 1614 there was a decisive battle fought between Hideyori, son of Oribe's former master Hideyoshi, and Hidetada who was both his master and his best loved pupil. Oribe fought on the side of Hidetada. He visited different camps to entertain the leaders with out-door cha no yu behind bamboo barricades. One time he was so absorbed in looking for material, from which to make a tea spoon (cha shaku), among the bamboo of the barricade that he was seen by the enemy and wounded. The war ended in a truce and while the two shoguns, Iyeyasu and Hidetada, met with various feudal lords to discuss new strategy a retainer of Oribe's as chief conspirator of a group of dissenters tried to set fire to the streets of Kyoto in order to attack the Tokugawa forces. The plan was discovered and the conspirators were taken prisoners. As was Japanese custom, Oribe though ignorant of the treason, was held responsible for the acts of his retainers and he was ordered to commit suicide. This he did, without unnecessary protest, in a quiet and seemly manner. Like his master in cha do, Sen Rikyu, Oribe died a tragic death. Oribe and Rikyu were alike in many respects but while Rikyu made cha no yu monasterical because he was a medievalist at heart, Oribe made it social because he was at heart a modernist. Although Oribe died by his own hand at the command of his Shogun, he had lived man's allotted time of "three score years and ten" and he had lived at an exciting time in Japanese history. His lot was cast with