Page 127 - Sotheby's Arcadian beauty Song Pottery Oct. 3, 2018

‘Hare’s fur’ glazed bowls of this radiant type, which have been A similar bowl was included in the exhibition Karamono
passed from hand to hand over the centuries in Japan, are temmoku [Chinese temmoku], MOA Art Museum, Atami,
rare. The humble appearances of these tea bowls made them 1994, cat. no. 6. This exhibition catalogue, where a few
appropriate for use in Buddhist temples, and they were held important heirloom temmoku tea bowls preserved in Japan
in great esteem in the Song dynasty (960-1279). Dramatically were juxtaposed with a large sample of excavated specimens
contrasting to the white foam of whipped tea, bowls enveloped from the kiln site, impressively documented the wide range
in this lustrous black glaze were greatly appreciated and of qualities and the excellence of the examples collected
soon gained popularity beyond the monastic circles. Emperor in Japan. Another bowl with a similar glaze effect in the
Huizong (r. 1101-1125), well known for his love for tea, stated Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, was included in the
that black-glazed tea bowls, especially those decorated with exhibition Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers.
‘hare’s fur’ like the present example, were the most desirable. Chinese Brown- and Black-Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400,
Together with whipped tea, Song dynasty ‘Jian’ tea bowls Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Mass., 1996,
are believed to have arrived in Japan in the Kamakura period cat. no. 83. Only one sherd with a similar glaze effect is
(1185-1333) when Zen Buddhism was introduced, and have illustrated in J.M. Plumer, Temmoku. A Study of the Ware of
since then been greatly treasured. Chien, Tokyo, 1972, p. 59, pl. 8.

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