Share a photograph of your favorite matcha chawan (teabowl)

[Victoria]

Very nice! Love the crackle!

[Seeker]

Hmmm, now, how to find that cave...
(gps, check; climbing rope, check; carabiners, check; ...)

In other news,

Amorphiss - great chawan! The 'brush strokes' remind me of fish in some mysterious ocean, their fins brushing the surface, and the chawan a magical window into the ocean's depths.

[Robert Fornell]

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

Thank you chameke as well.

Your's was a very interesting post and kudo's to your sensei and her flexible thinking as well as encouraging her students to do likewise. Not a practitioner of Sadou formaly, I do get a certain sense of relief when returning to Japan and seeing the variety of dogu/chashitsu in use there..... the openess and flexibility of it all, as well as the feeling of a living/evolving artform/practice which I tend to not find as readily here. The idea of giving oneself permission again.

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?

Aside from the fact that my hands (the instruments which make in this case) are on the medium to large size as an American, as I mentioned before, I find chawan at a certain scale intuitively pleasing. They just seem "right" at that size while if they're downsized, I come away dissapointed. I did go though a number of years of "chajin angst" however in which criticism pertaining to chawan size was frequent only to find relief at the hands of a Karatsu potter who upon viewing my work said "just make your own pots, they'll be much stronger".

That said, I do remember however when first working in Japan, my "tumblers" were being bought as vases, while my oversized, impolite yunomi and teapots just sat.

[amorphiss]

Amorphiss - great chawan! The 'brush strokes' remind me of fish in some mysterious ocean, their fins brushing the surface, and the chawan a magical window into the ocean's depths.

Haha I love this description!

[Carl]

"Now for something completely different."

A studio pottery tea bowl by David Frith with a little bit of fun. This is stoneware with Celadon & Kaki glaze and impressed leaf decorations. The tea bowl has a slightly squared form.

The Kaki glaze is so smooth to the touch it's almost buttery. It has a good weight to it and will be a practice bowl for my attempts at matcha.


(Gallery photograph...still not camera savy)

[Seeker]

Well, I broke my "tea break" rules today (finally, and I'm feeling no adverse effects like last time) - just couldn't wait any longer to test drive one of my new Michael Coffee/shyrabbit beauties.
So, here are some pics.
Blessings to you all.

A matcha morning (yay! been awhile):


Koudai (for you Cory):


And a peek at the inside:


This is a great chawan. I love it.

May you all be well.

cheers

[Chip]

Great Chawan-s Amorphiss, Carl and Seeker!

[Seeker]

Here's my morning matcha in a summer chawan (at least I think of it that way) by Michael Coffee:

and chadamari:

and koudai:

cheers

(Ooooo, breaking my tea hiatus for 2nd day in a row now, must admit I can feel the effects, but I've enjoyed my tea, and even more, my new wares!!! )

[Victoria]

Ohhhh very nice!!!

[Seeker]

So, I've been cleared for green tea!
That means, matcha morning!
Michael Coffee #3:


Yum, Yum (Horai-no-mukashi in the bowl).

(I can tell, however, that matcha every day won't be the best - maybe every other day ).

Cheers, here's to Peace and appreciation of differences rather than hysteria, blame, and judging/attacking what's different.

[bonjiri]

Well, I broke my "tea break" rules today (finally, and I'm feeling no adverse effects like last time) - just couldn't wait any longer to test drive one of my new Michael Coffee/shyrabbit beauties.
So, here are some pics.
Blessings to you all.

A matcha morning (yay! been awhile):


Koudai (for you Cory):


And a peek at the inside:


This is a great chawan. I love it.

May you all be well.

cheers

beautiful michael ! beautiful seeker !

love the uneven, shibui form

michael, u using ash on shino ?

aloha

[tenuki]

[Carl]

Wow, so many really great chawans and tea bowls. Michael's, Cory's, and Gene Roddenberry's bowls are inspirational!

I'm practicing with my almost new camera and trying out matcha with a new studio pottery piece which reminded me of falling snow.

The matcha has really been great and it's been very tolerant of my inexperience and still giving me a good tasting bowl of tea.


The aftermath of my matcha session...


A photograph from the potter's auction...

[geeber1]

Tenuki:

[Smells_Familiar]

could you post a photo of the koudai?