Tea Bowl

Description

This type of wide-mouthed bowl was used every day in Korea, not exclusively for tea drinking. But when it was introduced to Japan around the early 16th century, its imperfect appearance, which evokes the aesthetics of wabi-sabi, caused it to be repurposed as a tea bowl. Korean tea bowls were circulated as a item of foreign luxury among Japanese military elites. This type of tea bowl may have been produced in one of the kilns established and operated by the trading office (Waegwan) in Busan, southern Gyeongsang province, as an export item for Japanese tea bowl collectors.

Provenance

(James J. Freeman, Kyōto, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) (?–1996); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1996–)

Tea Bowl

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1600s

Accession Number

1996.4

Medium

glazed stoneware

Dimensions

Diameter of mouth: 14.6 cm (5 3/4 in.); Overall: 8.9 cm (3 1/2 in.)

Classification

Ceramic

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

Cornelia Blakemore Warner Fund