Share a photograph of your favorite matcha chawan (teabowl)

[Smells_Familiar]

One more to follow....I call it the Taco Bowl

sounds inappropriate?

the coke in the fires of hope is hopefully stoked!

[bonjiri]

wooz

beautiful acquisitions !

WOW !

inspirational !

[Victoria]

Very nice woozl! Love the red!

[Salsero]

Then we see a different sign for Rockport pottery .......and..Satori

Are you telling us that there is an elf somewhere in the backwoods of Maine turning out Chawan as if he were in Japan? Or were these item intended as candy dishes?

And you are the only one who knows how to find the elf's workshop?

[chamekke]

As Bonjiri most aptly stated in one of his posts, chadougu have, mainly since the end of the war, been getting smaller in size due to the ranks of Sadou practitioners in Japan of which women are now in the large majority. This is especially true of the production ware dogu which are found for sale at all department stores thoughout Japan. If one were to look at work by potters showing in galleries however, sizes for a Mino style chawan like the one Seeker acquired from me run from around 11cm to 13.5cm while Ido syle chawan run from 13cm or so up to 16cm. Chawan come in a multitude of shapes and sizes, made by potters of varying shapes and sizes for all types of users which keeps Sadou evolving as the living practice it is. The work of Nakamura Kohei and the current Raku Kichizaemon are a great examples of this. Both attempt to move the vernacular forward while working from tradition and due so splendidly. Nakamura's work is chawan meets Ken Price's early 80's cups, while most here are probably familiar with Raku-sans latest work.

The scale which is most comfortable for me to work in is similar to what was typically found in the Momoyama era, as I've found that if the work is reduced in size it loses it's strength/interest as a chawan while conversely if the size is increased (ie. Miwa Jyusetsu) it starts to become an abstract of a chawan and takes on almost sculptural qualities. Finally, as a potter, sometimes I almost dislike naming pieces ie. "chawan" or "yunomi" or "guinomi" or "ramen bowl" as it places a definition of use that doesn't necessarily need to be there as I typically will eat cereal out of a ramen bowl and drink sake from a yunomi or chawan.

This is a really magnificent post - please forgive me for quoting most of it.

I am a Western woman studying Chadou (Sadou). The question of "correct" scale and proportion is a fascinating one because there are so many views on it even among the people I know who study tea. We have (mostly Japanese) women with very petite hands and (mostly Western) men AND women with larger hands - that includes me! The bowls chosen for group activities are invariably of conventional proportions, and that's to be expected, since large hands can grasp a small bowl more easily than the reverse. However, students often buy more unconventional chawan for home use and private practice. On one occasion some of us held a "show and tell" at one student's home and it was very exciting to see and hold these unique pieces. A superb learning opportunity, especially for those of us who hadn't seen real-life examples of the different pottery types.

I love seeing larger chawan and can readily understand why this form is more appealing to many artists. Tell me, do you feel a sense of constraint when working within the smaller form, or does that challenge you in a positive way?

Also, just as an aside to the question of not liking to name pieces... there is a tradition of mitate or substitution in Chadou, which means that an item can be used in the tearoom for a given purpose, e.g. as a chawan, even when it was created as something else. (Mitate is said to be especially encouraged when you live outside Japan and therefore are presumed to have limited access to traditional dougu. Sometimes the attitude seems to be, "Oh well, use what you can get." Other times, it's a more positive attitude: "When you use dougu of your own place and culture, your tea practice becomes an expression of your own heart, your own experience.") My own feeling is that in addition, mitate keeps us flexible and so is good practice wherever we live - and shouldn't be viewed as a case of "I couldn't get the 'real' thing so this will have to suffice."

My sensei once held a series of lessons in which she encouraged us to bring in all sorts of "non-tea" pieces to use as chawan, kensui, chaire and so forth. It was a fantastic exercise - and in many cases helped us to understand in an immediate and experiential way why the traditional parameters of each dougu are what they are. (It's challenging to pour out the rinse water from a teabowl when it has no koudai whatsoever!) My favourite mitate piece, incidentally, was a "futaoki" or lid rest that one student created from a clear shot glass; it contained two blue-green marbles and a sprig of hydrangea. Improvised, simple, and surprisingly beautiful.

[woozl]

Are you telling us that there is an elf somewhere in the backwoods of Maine turning out Chawan as if he were in Japan? Or were these item intended as candy dishes?

And you are the only one who knows how to find the elf's workshop?

Yes, an elf throwing serious chawan.
He studied in Japan
I had to pass on the 500 dollar bowl......

I will try to get him to join artisans forum.
Still have one more to post.
The Taco Bowl. It has been an elusive subject and my camera is on loan

[Intuit]

Rockport Pottery's ceramic master does look like an elf.

YouTube video on Richard Robertson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e_Bn6I2RvE

[Salsero]

He studied in Japan

Ah, this explains a lot! It would be nice if you can get him to join our artists ... after you have cleaned out all the chawan of course.

[woozl]

I've sent Richard a cordial invitation to the artisans forum.
Hopefully we see him around.

[woozl]

Here is the Taco Bowl.



I'm thinking something fell on it in the kiln.
It's folded over, akin to a taco.



I've had trouble capturing the "taconess" of it all.

[Victoria]

Yeah, I'm not getting any taconess here in SoCA.

[woozl]

Well, we all know a Maine taco is nothing like a So.Cal taco!
Maybe, it's a ......
Lobstah taco

[Dreamer]

I've sent Richard a cordial invitation to the artisans forum.
Hopefully we see him around.

Yeah! I hope he decides to play with us!!!
I want to touch! Maybe we could start a feel-o-rama box pass!?!? Seems like I said that before after cleaning the drool off my keyboard after some chawan Chip or Victoria or Cory or ??? posted.

Later,
Dreamer

[Seeker]

Okay, I just whored it up and purchased three (count 'em 3!) chawan from Michael Coffee (shyrabbit). Somebody help me!
I won't receive them until next week, so in the meantime, here are images from etsy:
1st:

then:

and finally:


Oh noooooo!, err, rather, yeeeessss! It's actually four (that's right, 4),
this one too!:


Whew.
And to think, I'm currently off matcha (Dr's orders ).

But I will be drinking tea, somehow, someway, someday!

Kookie, kookie me.

[Seeker]

I might have a problem...

Here's a fifth (yeah, 5):


I'm so excited!
(even if a little, well, excessive...)