KYOTO -- In Japan, there are things that Japanese people believe only the Japanese can understand. One of these is the value of tea bowls.
There is an expression indicating the best three tea bowls created in various regions: "Ichi Ido, ni Raku, san Karatsu" (First Ido, second Raku, third Karatsu).
Ido tea bowls are a type of Goryeo tea bowl made in Korea during the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910). Raku tea bowls date to the latter half of the 16th century and originated in Kyoto. Karatsu ware tea bowls are fired in what was known as Hizen, present-day Saga and Nagasaki prefectures, but it is said this pottery was started by potters brought to Japan from Korea during military offensives of warriors dispatched by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the 16th-century warlord who died in 1598.
There is also a ranking that is limited to domestic-made tea bowls: "Ichi Raku, ni Hagi, san Karatsu." Hagi ware, made in Hagi, Yamaguchi Prefecture, is also said to have Korean roots like Karatsu ware.
Goryeo bowls, including Ido ware, were originally daily tableware in Korea. They were mass-produced and affordable products, with ribbed surfaces made by potter's wheels and roughly glazed.
Yamanoue Soji (1544-1590), one of the top disciples of the Sen no Rikyu, who was regarded as a master of the tea ceremony, is said to have highly valued Goryeo bowls, describing them as "the best." However, it is difficult to appraise the value unless you are a ceramics connoisseur.
There is a classic Japanese rakugo comical story called "Ido no Chawan" (Ido tea bowl). A ronin living in an area with row houses for the poor sells a Buddhist statue for 200 mon to a junk dealer. The statue catches the eye of a retainer of the Hosokawa family, the feudal clan of Higo, now Kumamoto Prefecture, and buys it for 300 mon. The retainer then finds 50 ryo (1 ryo is equivalent to 4,000 mon) of koban, a former Japanese gold oval coin, in the statue and tries to return it to the ronin.
The ronin firmly refuses to accept it, saying, "I've already sold it." An arbitrator then comes in, and the three people, including the junk dealer, end up dividing the 50 ryo. In return, the ronin gives the retainer a tea bowl that was in his home. The lord of the Hosokawa family, thinking how heartwarming this affair was, summons the retainer and sees that the tea bowl is Ido ware. The lord buys the bowl for 300 ryo.
The story has the ironic aspect that it was a mere old tea bowl to a modest person like the ronin and the retainer.
Suppose this story is set in the early Edo period (1603-1867) and 1 ryo at that time is worth about 100,000 yen today. That means this tea bowl would have cost the equivalent of 30 million yen then. If the bowl were up for sale now, the price would perhaps be 10 times higher.
Probably costing about the same if they have a long and distinguished history are Raku tea bowls, considered as the best of domestic-made pottery.
Raku tea bowls are formed using the hands and a carving spatula, without using a potter's wheel. There are two types: red, where a transparent glaze shows off the red hue of the clay, and black.
The black Raku tea bowls are distinctive. The works of 16th-century potter Chojiro, who established the style, are simply black without any decoration.
Paradoxically, when you look into the bowl, the universe can be seen. It is a philosophical way of thinking in which the universe is everything that exists and everything can be seen where there is nothing.
I led off this article with a claim that I actually don't agree with, where only Japanese people can understand tea bowls.
French potter Andoche Praudel, who is a friend of Raku Jikinyu, the 15th generation of the Raku family founded by Chojiro, once said: "European pottery is craft, not art. But Raku ware is art."
I think that's spot on.
Yomiuri Shimbun file photos
1. A Czech woman whisks green tea in a tea bowl in Kyoto.
2. The Ido tea bowl called Kizaemon is a national treasure.
3. This Hagi tea bowl is believed to have been used by the 16th-century warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Courtesy of Raku Museum
4. The black Raku tea bowl called Mozuyaguro was created by the 16th-century potter Chojiro.
5. The black Raku tea bowl called Omokage was also created by Chojiro.
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