Okugōrai Tea Bowl
Item number: T-3215Size: H 3.3" x D 6.3" (8.5 x 16 cm)
Age: early 17th century
Karatsu ware; stoneware with feldspar glaze
Box inscriptions:
(top:) Karamono Ido tea bowl 唐物井戸 茶碗
(side:) Number 104, Ido 第百四号 井戸
Seal: Mitsu 光
This fine large tea bowl from the Karatsu kiln has a number of interesting features. The form, first of all, is based on earlier bowls from the Korean Peninsula, in particular on the Ido type. The bowl looks plain and undecorated, but is actually carefully thought out in detail and anything but spontaneous. A creamy feldspar glaze has been applied in different thicknesses onto the reddish-brown clay body, resulting in variations of hues, as well as in dripping and pooling effects. A drop of glaze was let into the foot and turned 180 degrees. Depending on the thickness of the glaze, the crackling ranges from small to large, resulting in an interesting visual pattern. Paradoxically, rusticity and spontaneity were the effects sought after in creating this vessel. The bowl has undergone the ravages of time, and there are small gold lacquer repairs of chips and hairlines along the rim, as well as a large gold lacquer repair that joined three broken sections of the bowl. Judging from the wear and slight shrinkage of the lacquer, the repairs go back at least a century.
The Karatsu kiln has its origins back in the fifteenth century, but did not achieve fame until the end of the sixteenth century, when Korean potters were forcibly resettled in the area after Hideyoshi’s invasions of the Korean Peninsula. The Korean potters brought with them expertise in seeking out the right clays, high technical skills, and knowledge of Korean ceramic objects. This proved to be an irresistible combination for the tea-ceremony-crazed daimyō for whom Korean tea bowls such as the Ido type became models for the bowls created at the revitalized Japanese kilns, such as the Karatsu.
At Karatsu they did this exceedingly well. In fact, the bowls created here in the early seventeenth century were so well made that they are sometimes hard to distinguish from those made on the mainland. The present bowl is a case in point, for the box belonging to the bowl has been mistakenly inscribed »Ido« by two different collectors, one with a seemingly large collection of tea utensils (as this forms number 104 of his or her collection).
The differences are, in this case, the lack of the iconic Ido-type crackling of glaze near the foot of this bowl (though an approximation was attempted with the varied layering of glaze), the lack of glaze within the whole foot (again, glaze was let run around, but not enough), the number of spur marks (three here but four or more in the Ido), and the shape of the foot (in this case, too deliberate).1 In fact, it is better not to see this tea bowl as a mere »copy« of a Korean tea bowl, but as an independent achievement on its own. As such this striking work of a highly skilled and inventive potter should be celebrated as a great work of the Karatsu Okugōrai type, created in response to Korean ingenuity and Japanese tea ceremony aesthetics.
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