Black Raku Tea Bowl (Shigure) by Koetsu

A Black Raku Bowl by Hon'ami Koetsu, Designated in 2007

Black Raku Tea Bowl (Shigure) by Koetsu (黒楽茶碗（時雨）光悦作) is an Edo-period tea bowl at 1001 Tokugawa-cho, Higashi Ward, Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, designated an Important Cultural Property on 8 June 2007. The quantity is one bowl, the category applied arts, and the maker Koetsu. It belongs to the City of Nagoya.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs writes: a black raku tea bowl made by Hon'ami Koetsu, 1558 to 1637. The body is formed as a half-cylinder rounded at the waist, with the upper edge of the rim finished flat. Black glaze covers the whole, but in places it runs thin and the dry blackish-brown body shows through directly. It is well known as the finest example of what marks Koetsu's black raku bowls. Handed down in the Mitsui family.

It stands 8.8 centimetres high, 12.4 centimetres across the mouth and 4.7 centimetres across the foot: a bowl that sits in the palm.

Where the Glaze Runs Thin

The heart of the Agency's account is how the black glaze lies on the bowl.

Black glaze is brushed over the whole, down to the foot, melting to a lustrous surface; but on parts of the outer body and the inner rim it runs very thin, and the fired blackish-brown surface of the clay appears.

Glaze covers everything, yet thins in places, and there the body beneath shows through. The clay is a greyish-brown iron-rich stoneware. Lustrous black and dry blackish-brown stand together on the same surface.

When the Agency calls this the finest example of what marks Koetsu's black raku bowls, it means that fall of the glaze. Behind the judgment lies a way of looking that treats unevenness as landscape rather than as failure.

Kiln Cracks, Partly Made Good

The Agency's description of the material also records damage: cracks from the kiln at two places on the body and one on the base, partly made good. Five or so spur marks remain on the foot.

Kiln cracks arise during firing. The bowl was already cracked when it came out, and it has been handed down repaired. That it is not intact is set down in the official record.

Spur marks are left by the supports on which a piece rests during firing, and five or so remain on the foot. The process of making has stayed on the underside of the bowl.

It was designated all the same, because the assessment turns on manner rather than on completeness. The record of damage and the high estimation sit side by side in the same entry.

Formed by Hand, Thinly

The method of forming is recorded too. The body is a greyish-brown iron-rich stoneware, a half-cylinder rounded at the waist, formed thinly by hand.

Forming by hand means working without the wheel. A wheel would make the work fast and even; hand forming does not. Raku ware is made this way.

The description of the shape is close. The waist carries a generous, easy roundness; the body swells a little through its lower half, draws in slightly at the rim, and the lip turns outward a little. The edge of the lip is cut with a spatula and left somewhat blunt and flat.

The body is shaped by careful paring with a spatula, and the inner base is finished almost flat. A low, rather small circular foot is pared out beneath. Paring with a spatula is the step that follows the hand forming.

Seeing It

The bowl belongs to the City of Nagoya, and the Agency gives its location as 1001 Tokugawa-cho, Higashi Ward, Nagoya City.

It is not necessarily on permanent display, and whether and when it is shown depends on the institution's programme. Tea bowls are readily rotated in and out of display, so confirm that it is on show if the object itself is the purpose of the visit.

The Agency records its provenance as handed down in the Mitsui family. It has passed through several hands between the Mitsui and its present ownership.

From Ozone Station on the Nagoya Municipal Subway Meijo Line it is about ten minutes on foot.