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Posted on 11th May 2015
An imported Chinese tea container in the katatsuki (having flattened "shoulders" near the neck) style. One of the three most famous katatsuki-style containers. After Murata Juko acquired it, it was passed to Miyoshi Masanaga, Otomo Sorin, Oda Nobunaga, then Toyotomi Hideyoshi. It became a Tokugawa family heirloom following the fall of Osaka Castle.
tall: 8.6 cm
origin: China
age 13-14c
collection: Tokugawa art museum
The "Tsukumo-nasu" is a Chinese-imported ceramic tea container in the nasu ("eggplant" - rounded with a slightly larger bottom) style originally belonging to the third shogun of the Muromachi shogunate, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408). It is said that he even carried it to battle with him. After that it was handed down as a favorite possession [...]
This is a celadon longquan-ware incense burner, once owned by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. An anecdote about Ishikawa Goemon is relevant to Chidori. He was ordered to assassinate Toyotomi Hideyoshi by Kimura Hitachinosuke, a vassal of Toyotomi Hidetsugu (Hideyoshi’s nephew). One night Ishikawa Goemon finally succeeded in creeping into Hideyoshi’s bed room in Fushimi castle. But Hideyoshi [...]
A katatsuki-style tea container imported from China. One of the three most famous katatsuki-style containers. Said to have been one of Yang Guifei's oil jars. Named "hatsuhana (the first flower of the season, or a girl who has just flowered into womanhood)" for its elegance by Ashikaga Yoshimasa. Oda Nobunaga acquired it from the merchants [...]
Koraimono (means Korean ware)Koraimono is a general term referring to tea utensils produced in the Korean Peninsula, in contrast with the Chinese-produced style of pottery known as "karamono." Around the mid-16th century, corresponding with the rise of the wabi-cha style of tea ceremony, this multi-purpose bowl produced in ordinary kilns throughout the Korean peninsula came [...]
One of the two Japanese pottery tea bowls designated as national treasures. This is the work of Koetsu Honami who was active from Momoyama period to Edo period. It was named meaning the one and only chawan formed by associating snow-capped Mount Fuji. On the other hand, it is also said that ash happened to [...]
Murata Juko (1423-1502) is known in Japanese cultural history as the founder of chanoyu (or sado, Japanese tea ceremony), in that he was the early developer of the wabi-cha style of tea enjoyment employing native Japanese implements. In the shogun family of the Muromachi period , the Tenmoku tea bowl or celadon porcelain tea bowl of [...]
One famous Longquan ceradon bowl is named Bakohan, and is a National Treasure of Japan displayed in the Tokyo National Museum. According to a document from the Edo period this beautiful green tea bowl was made in a Longquan kiln between 1127-1279 (the South song era) and gifted from China to Japan's Taira no Shigemori [...]
The inscription "Kono yo (this world)" comes from a poem by Izumi Shikibu in the Goshui Wakashu (a collection of medieval poetry) which reads: "Soon my life will be at an end: above all other memories of this world, let me remember this, the moment of our meeting" to express its rarity. Known to have [...]
One of the two pottery tea bowls designated as national treasures that has been baked in Japan. It has been fired in a kiln called Mutabora kama in Mino ( an old province of the southern part of Gifu Prefecture) in Momoyama period, which is characterized by its warped shape, unconventional spatula work, and [...]