Description
This tea bowl is considered one of the finest examples of Raku ware, a revolutionary type of ceramic developed by the Kyoto potter Chōjirō in the late 1500s. Unlike other ceramics of the time, Raku tea bowls were hand-formed into natural, ergonomic shapes that were comfortable to use. They were then fired to a matte black finish that allowed them to harmonize with other utensils in the tearoom.
Data source
ColBase
"ColBase: Integrated Collections Database of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan" is a service that enables a multi-database search of the collections in the four national museums (To...
Contents holder/Provider
Aggregator
National Institutes for Cultural Heritage
The National Institutes for Cultural Heritage (NICH) comprise four National Museums (Tokyo National Museum, Kyoto National Museum, Nara National Museum, and Kyushu National Museum) and two National Research Institutes for Cultural Properties (Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, and Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties), as well as the International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI) in Sakai City, for a total of seven institutions.
Last updated
March 23, 2026