#chanoyu

Mizusashi for tea ceremony.

Japanese Takatoru pottery.

Winter chanoyu, the tea ceremony, in Kitakata Japan.

本年もよろしくお願いいたします。

Sending you good wishes.

Raku Jikinyū, “White Rock series”

Raku tea bowls are shaped by hand rather than being thrown on the potter's wheel and are drawn from the kiln at the height of the firing so that they cool rapidly in the atmosphere outside. 

Their purpose is for drinking whipped tea (matcha) in the tea ceremony (chanoyu). 

Typically either monochrome red or monochrome black, Raku tea bowls were considered radically avant-garde when they first appeared in the late sixteenth century. They were synonymous with the ideals of the wabi style of tea ceremony pioneered by the renowned tea master Sen Rikyū (1522-91). 

The Raku family has lived and worked on the same plot of land in Kyoto since 1586. Jikinyū succeeded to the family headship as Raku Kichizaemon XV in 1981 and assumed the name Jikinyū when he retired in favour of his elder son, who became Raku Kichizaemon XVI in July 2019. He has devoted his career to exploring the possibilities of the traditional tea bowl format in a constant search for new modes of expression. 

His tea bowls are characterised by bold sculptural trimming and the creative use of the yakinuki firing method.