Pentox wrote:Ooo that is quite the nice chawan. I still a bit torn personally between the whole kuro raku / wabi sabi notion of chawans and the finely refined ones. If only that was a sencha teacup, that would be amazing.
Well, here's the thing. I've never had it formally explained to me, but there seem to be two "flavours" of chawan, and it has to do with their functions within the Japanese tea ceremony:
Wabi-style chawan-s
- Simple, often rugged, style
- Usually with no design or pattern
- Often textured and "rough"
- Often natural- or earth-coloured
- Frequently unglazed
- May be irregularly shaped or lopsided
- May be of a material that retains heat more effectively (e.g. Raku)
- Almost always used when making koicha ("thick tea")
- Occasionally used when making usucha ("thin tea").
More elaborate chawan-s
- Often have a fancier style
- Likelier to be symmetrical in shape
- Often include a design (which can be extremely detailed/elaborate)
- Design is frequently seasonal
- Can feature any colour combination
- Visual emphasis tends to be on the design, rather than its "background"
- Typically used for making usucha - almost never for koicha.
In a full tea event (chaji), the guests are served a light meal (kaiseki) and a sweet; then they receive koicha; then usucha. During the koicha part of the event, the koicha is drunk from a common chawan. This part of the event is considered the most solemn, and it has a communion-like feel about it; because the tone is contemplative, the guests are typically quiet and don't speak much (aside from a few formulaic questions-and-answers about the tea utensils). So a more sober chawan is more appropriate at this time.
Usucha, however, is literally and figuratively "lighter" - each person receives their own bowl, and there is frequently casual conversation during this part of the chaji. This is where the host can choose teabowls appropriate to each guest and/or to the season. In effect, it's where everyone can be a little more relaxed, and have a little more fun.
So even the most "wabi"-inclined host is likely to use Kyoyaki bowls (like the sakurayanagi bowl above) at least part of the time - usually to indicate an appreciation of the season when serving usucha to the guests. Seasonality, and a genuine sensitivity for what is happening in nature outside the tearoom, is of tremendous importance in the tea world. That's one reason that tea people often have a teabowl for each year of the Asian zodiac - even though the bowl then goes into storage for 11 years out of every 12!
My excuse is that we had a small cherry orchard growing up and I as a small boy I spent many many happy hours playing in those trees.
Those dramatic reds and whites!
