Page 36 - Catalogue of the Edward Morse collection of Japanese pottery MFA BOSTON

i6 INTRODUCTION
Little tea-cups are used, from which the tea is drank without sugar and
without cream, and by the time the tea is made properly and served it is
nearly cold, but delicious. Other objects come into play, such as rests for
the cup, and a tea-jar, though for ordinary service a lacquer box is used or a
block-tin canister. A special form of bowl is used, into which the rinsings
of the cup are poured ; and in the formal serving of this tea other objects
find a place.

The Tea-Ceremony
Tea in the form of a fine powder, to which boiling hot water is added
and briskly stirred with a bamboo whisk, is, when served with due formal-
ity, associated with a number of intricate rules, according to the school
followed. In this service nearly all the vessels and utensils are made of
pottery. Among the objects commonly made of bamboo or metal, pottery
examples may be found ; even the shovel for ashes, which is usually of
metal, in rare instances is made of pottery. The collection contains an
example. The tripod upon which the hot-water kettle rests is also seen in
pottery.
Space will not permit a description of the ceremonial tea-party, though
the origin and persistence of this refined oustom has had a most profound
influence on the fictile art of Japan. The tenets have insisted on repose in
form and decoration. In the little house specially made for the service, and
in the approaches to it, such as the pathway, gate, fences, etc., rusticity is
affected : old moss-covered framework to the wells ; the pathway, in winter,
strewn with pine needles ; quaint waterworn rocks brought from some dis-
tant mountain brook. In the densest portions of the commercial city of
Tokyo one can find these enchanting spots.
The little tea-jars to hold the powdered tea must depend upon their form
and glaze for their attractive features. The tea-bowls are often of irregular
contour, rarely decorated ; the little dishes in which food is served before
the tea are also of some quaint form, and dainty always. The furnace may
consist of a square hole in the floor, metal-lined, and filled with ashes, in
which the burning charcoal is partially buried. Often the furnace is a large,
thick, unglazed pottery receptacle standing on three short legs (case 33).
This rests on a square tile or a square lacquered board. A large water-jar,
with lacquered cover, holds the water to replenish the iron kettle.. A quaint
little box of pottery is to hold incense, which is often put on the coals to
give fragrance to the room. A rest for the bamboo dipper may be of
bamboo, but is often made of pottery. A vessel into which the water is