Page 330 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

254 Teabowl, named Jud
Hon'ami Kôetsu (1558-1637)
h. 9.9 (3 7/s)
Edo period, early iyth century
Goto Museum, Tokyo

255 Teabowl, named Azuma
Hon'ami Kôetsu (1558-1637)
h. 8.8 (3^/2)
Edo period, early iyth century
Kitamura Bunka Zaidan, Kyoto

The popularity of the practice of tea stim-
ulated the diversification of native Japa-
nese wares. Some tea men actively joined
in this process as amateur potters, without
the technical skills or inhibitions of the
professionals, supplying a new source of
energy to the artistic flux. Typically, these
amateurs employed the uncomplicated
methods for forming vessels established in
the mid-sixteenth century by the Raku lin-
eage of potters (cats. 285, 286). One of the
earliest and most artistically successful and
influential members of this group was
Hon'ami Kôetsu, the prominent early
Edo-period calligrapher, designer, and stu-
dent of the tea master Furuta Oribe (1544-
1615).
Koetsu's serious involvement with ce-
ramics did not begin until he was in his
late fifties. Earlier, he had been trained in 254
sword connoisseurship, his family's tradi-
tional profession, and had attained his ar-
tistic reputation primarily through
achievements in the field of calligraphy. In
1615, he moved to Takagamine, land
granted to him by Tokugawa leyasu (1543-
1616), northwest of Kyoto, where he
formed an artistic community and is re-
ported to have found "good earth." A let-
ter dating to around 1620 from Kôetsu to
Katô Akinari (1592-1661), the son of Katô
Yoshiaki (1563-1631), daimyo of Matsuyama
in lyo Province (present-day Ehime Pre-
fecture), concerns the order of a teabowl
by the older Katô, reflecting the high re-
gard accorded his ceramic work even dur-
ing his lifetime.
Very few ceramic objects are cur-
rently accepted as authentic works by
Kôetsu. All of these are tea-related wares,
and most are teabowls. The two examples
in this exhibition represent the two basic
Raku glazes, red and black, and Kôetsu
worked in both. Jud (Ten Kings) is an ex-
ample of the red Raku type (cat. 254). Its
globular form sits on a short foot, and the
rim of the mouth curves gently inward, a
tendency echoed on the carved lower part
of the body. Although Kôetsu used the 255
simple methods pioneered by the Raku
potters, handbuilding his bowls from slabs
of clay, he was not bound by their concep-
tual framework. Chôjirô (1516-1592), the
founder of the Raku tradition, was en-

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