well, wellside, soba, ame-nori, kohiki, katate, tamago-te
The general term for tea bowls made in Korea, including well, ame-nori, kohiki, totoya, Mishima, hakeme, goki and gohon, is commonly referred to as Koryo-chawan.
Koryo tea bowls have been treasured and carefully preserved by tea masters since ancient times, and their ethereal, solitary appearance has a deep, captivating effect on people. Although there are quite a few Koryo tea bowls that have been excavated from Korea in recent years, the majority of them have been handed down in Japan, and today they can only be found in Japan, and are rare in other countries.
The beauty of Koryo tea bowls is best expressed by old Chinese phrases such as “mysteriously murky” and “profoundly empty”, and they have a deep, austere beauty, like that of an old monk with no color or scent. The great achievement of Japanese tea masters is that they discovered the beauty of Koryo tea bowls, classified them in detail, and preserved them with care, attaching names such as “daimyōbutsu” and “meibutsu” to them, and treating them with more care than they would a jewel. Furthermore, the fact that we find Koryo tea bowls beautiful is a unique way of looking at Japanese pottery, and few people, whether Koreans who made them or Westerners, understand their beauty.
Even though they are called Koryo tea bowls, there are not many that were actually made during the Koryo period. Most of them were made during the Yi Dynasty, but it is still not fully clear when or where in Korea they were made.
It is thought that the beauty of Koryo tea bowls was discovered and they began to be used in the tea ceremony from the end of the Muromachi period to the Momoyama period. After the appearance of Shuko, the popularity of the wabi-cha style of tea ceremony with its emphasis on simplicity and quiet refinement, and the preference for soft, friendly tea bowls over the hard, formal tea bowls, the Korean tea bowls such as the Ido and Mishima types came to be prized above the Chinese tea bowls such as the Tenmoku and Seiji types.
In the ‘Kindaikan Zuisho-cho Ki’ compiled by Soami with a postscript dated 1511, the term ‘Koryo tea bowl’ does not appear. The first time the term ‘Koryo tea bowl’ appears is in the ‘Tsuda Sotan Chayu Nikki’ (Tsuda Sotan’s Tea Ceremony Diary), where it is written as ‘Kourai chawan chatatsu’ in the Soryu-kai meeting on December 12th, 1549. In addition, the book “Chagu Bitoshu” compiled by Ikkoku-ken Soken with a postscript dated 1554 also mentions Korean tea bowls, and the tea diary of Imai Sōkyū from the following year (1555) also uses Korean tea bowls.
In the ‘Bunrui Sōjin Mokushi’ (A Classified List of People of Letters) with a colophon dated 1564, there is an article that says, “At the time, the tea ceremony was becoming more like the Chinese tea ceremony”. In the ‘Sanjō Sōji Chasho’ (The Tea Book of Sanjō Sōji) with a colophon dated 1588, there is an article that says, “As for tea bowls, the Chinese tea bowls have been abandoned, and today, the Korean tea bowls and the Imari tea bowls are the best. If they are comparable, they are also tea utensils. This shows that, from around the time of the Tenbun era to the Tensho era, as the wabi-cha style of tea ceremony became popular, hard tea bowls such as tenmoku and celadon gradually fell out of favor, and soft Korean tea bowls such as ido, kohiki and soba came to be preferred.
The Korean tea bowls that became popular from the end of the Muromachi period through the Warring States period were initially called “Koryo tea bowls”, but the terms “Ido” and “Mishima” then began to appear in tea ceremony records. The Korean tea bowls were divided into categories such as Oido, Koido, Ido Konin, Ido Waki, Soba, Kohiki, Amamori, Katate, Jyute, Tamago-te, Hakeme, Kumagawa, Hanshi, Goki, Toto ya, kakinobori, iraho, waridai, fudeshi, kinkai, unkaku, kyogen hakama, horimishima, goshomaru, gohon, etc., and it was only in Edo that these were further subdivided and given various names. And at the beginning of the Edo period, around the time of Kobori Enshu, there was no such detailed classification as there is today, and it was not until after the Kansei era that Koryo tea bowls were subdivided as they are today. I have never seen old box inscriptions for things like Aoido, Tamagote, or Yawarakate.
There are various types of Koryo tea bowls that do not fall into the categories mentioned above. For example, there are tea bowls that are not well-shaped, nor are they well-shaped with a side. There are also tea bowls that are not hard-handled, nor are they leaky, nor are they egg-shaped, but there are also tea bowls that are similar to these. From ancient times, tea masters have called all of these Koryo tea bowls, and if you call something a Koryo tea bowl, you cannot go wrong if you do not know the name.
Broadly speaking, there are two types of Koryo tea bowls: those that were made by early tea masters such as Shuko, Shouou, Souki, Soukyuu, Souji and Rikyu, who selected them from among the miscellaneous vessels of Joseon, and those that were ordered from Japan and made as tea bowls, perhaps because the demand for Koryo tea bowls gradually increased and the relationship with Joseon kilns deepened. If we assume that the earlier tea bowls are Type 1 and the later ones are Type 2, then the following are Type 1 tea bowls: Ido, Ido-waki, Soba, Kohiki, Amamori, Katate, Yawate, Tamago-te, Mishima, Hakeme, Kumagawa, Hanshi, Goki, Toto-ya, Kakinobori, etc. ya, and the Kakinobori band are all first-category tea bowls, while the Iroha, Waridai, Gosomaru, Fudeshi, Kinkai, Unkaku, Choshimizu, Gohon, Gohontatsuru, and E-Gohon are all second-category tea bowls. The first category of tea bowls are everyday utensils that were made carelessly on a well-worn potter’s wheel, and they have a free and lively quality. In contrast, the second type of tea bowl has a certain artificiality in both its appearance and its construction, and the further down the timeline we go, the thinner and more delicate the construction becomes, and it lacks the simple, dignified charm of the first type of tea bowl.
So, when did they start ordering tea bowls to be made in Korea? Nobody has yet discussed this in depth, but it was probably around the time of the Tensho era, when Goryeo tea bowls were most popular. The second type of tea bowl that was ordered and made in Korea can be divided into two periods: the period when they were made by kilns around Busan, such as Gimhae and Changgye, and the period after Kan’ei when Japanese people were no longer able to freely visit the kilns and so they were made in the kilns built within the Japanese settlement. Iroha, Shoki, Gosomaru and Kinkai are thought to have been made at the Kinkai kiln, but the thin-walled tea bowls commonly known as Gohon, Gohontatsuru and E-Gohon are thought to have been made at the Wakan kiln from the Kan’ei period onwards.
Ido
Ido is said to be the king of tea bowls, and as the saying goes, “Ido, Raku, Karatsu”, Ido has long been considered the most important of all tea bowls.
Ido is a bold, large, and solid tea bowl, but it is loved by many people because of its free-spirited and warm, soft feel.
The name Ido first appears in the tea ceremony diary “Tsuda Sōkyū’s Diary of Tea and Tea Ceremony” from 1578, where it is recorded that Ido was used at the “Yabu no Uchisōwa-kai” tea gathering on October 25th. In the ‘Tsuda Sōyū Chayū Nikki’ (Tea and Tea Ceremony Diary of Tsuda Sōyū) it is recorded that wells were used frequently, and in the ‘Sōtan Nikki’ (Diary of Sōtan), ‘Imai Sōkyū Chayū Shobetsu’ (Selected Writings on the Tea Ceremony by Imai Sōkyū), ‘Matsuya Nikki’ (Matsuya Diary), ‘Rikyū Hyakueiki’ (Rikyū’s Hundred Meetings), ‘Koori Chakai Ki’ (Koori Tea Gathering Diary) and other works, it is also recorded that wells were used frequently.
The word “well” started to be used frequently from around the Tensho period, but the actual use of well tea bowls at tea ceremonies was even earlier than that, and before the sixth year of the Tensho period, they were probably called Koryo tea bowls. Incidentally, in his article “The Name of the Ido Tea Bowl” (Yakimono Shumi, Vol. 4, No. 3), Yukinori Fujita mentions the following Ido tea bowls that have been handed down since the Tensho era or earlier: Kizaemon, Tsutsui Tsutsumi, Soi, Uraku, Fukushima, Sakabe , Ryuko-in, Otakara, the large well owned by Hideyoshi, the old priest, Kanbayashi, Uji, the Rikyu well, the Rikyu small well, Jumonji, Shibata, Matsumoto, and Eihin.
Next, why were these tea bowls called “wells”? There are various theories about the origin of the word “well”. The most widely accepted theory is that they were owned by someone with the surname “Ido” or that they were brought back from Korea. Another theory that is also quite widespread is that they were called “Ido” because they were derived from the name of a place in Gyeongsang Province called “Jangdo”, but I have also heard that there is no such place name. In addition, the Yusho Roku says, “Someone says that the name of the teacup comes from India, and that is why it is called an Indian teacup. India is another name for the country of Tenjiku, and it is not correct to write it as an old-fashioned well.” However, this is a ridiculous theory and is not worth considering.
In addition, there are quite a few people who believe that the name “Ido” was derived from the fact that the inside of the well is deep, but there does not seem to be any clear evidence for this theory either.
In addition, Kato Takakazu, who once worked for the Governor-General of Korea and was well-versed in Korean affairs, published a theory that Ido was a combination of the words “Ido” and “Tsuchi”, which means glaze, and this theory has also become quite widespread.
There are also several other theories, but as there are no reliable documents from around the Tensho and Bunroku periods to confirm which of these theories is correct or which are doubtful, there is no established theory regarding the origin of the word “well”.
Next, when were wells first built? One theory is that they were built during the Goryeo period. Imaizumi Yusaku said, “This tea bowl is so old that it could have been made 700 years ago, or even 600 years ago, even if it was made in the Koryo period” (Koryo tea bowls and Seto tea caddies), and even today, there are people who think that Ido is a miscellaneous vessel from the end of the Koryo period.
However, Goryeo tea bowls were popular from the late Muromachi period through the Warring States and Momoyama periods, along with the popularity of the wabi-cha tea ceremony, and if they are not mentioned in any records from before the 16th century, it seems more reasonable to assume that the wells were made in Korea during the late Muromachi period. In Korea, there is not much of a tradition of carefully preserving old things. Furthermore, it is hard to imagine that such a fragile item as a well would have been preserved for a hundred years or more. It is also hard to imagine that it was imported to Japan at the end of the Goryeo period or the beginning of the Yi Dynasty and then carefully preserved somewhere. It is likely that a considerable number of these wells were brought to Japan by Japanese tea masters at the end of the 15th century or the beginning of the 16th century. There is still no clear theory today as to when the well was made.
There is no disagreement today that the well is from Korea, but where in Korea was it made? I will list the theories I have heard in the past, starting from the north
- Hamgyeongbuk-do, Gokkou theory (Shuichiro Kasai)
- Hamgyeongnam-do, Yeongheung, Myeopo (Shimura Toku)
- Pyongan-do, Nyeongbyeon (Narazaki Tekka)
- Jeollabuk-do, Jeongeup
- Jeollanam-do, Suncheon
- Gyeongsangbuk-do, Seonsan
- Gyeongsangnam-do, Yangsan (Shinsui Shuzo)
- Gyeongsangnam-do, Hanyang
There are also other opinions, such as the fact that it is impossible to determine where the wells were fired, and that wells-style items were fired in various parts of Joseon. Wells-style tea bowls were certainly fired in North Korea and also made in South Korea. When I was traveling in Hamhung in North Korea, an old man called Sagi-mura showed me a well-style bowl made in Yaku-po in Yongheung, and it certainly looked very similar to the wells. Also, the ones from Jeonju in Jeollabuk-do, and the ones from Seonsan and Goryeong in Gyeongsangbuk-do, also look very similar to wells. However, on closer inspection, they are different from the wells that have been highly prized in our country since ancient times. Whether they are famous wells or small wells, the clay, glaze and style are almost identical, so it is impossible to think that they were made in different places at different times. In addition, it is thought that they were not made for a long period of time, and that they were made in the same kiln at around the same time.
The late Kiio Ito was an authority on Korean ceramics, and he also traveled widely throughout Korea, and was known as a collector of old Korean ceramics. He once said that the well was from Busan in Gyeongsangnam-do. Mr. Ito is said to have owned a tea bowl excavated from Busan in Gyeongsangnam-do that was exactly the same as the Ido bowl in terms of the article, glaze, style and tone of the kaeragi (a type of pattern). He once told me that he had compared this tea bowl excavated in Jinju with several Ido tea bowls that had been handed down in Japan, and that he had also compared them with the tea bowls of famous tea masters such as Mitsui Morinosuke and Yokoi Hansaburo, and that he was convinced that the tea bowls were identical and that the Jinju tea bowl was the original. This tea bowl excavated in Shinshu was in the possession of Mr. Yokoi Hansaburo, but unfortunately it was destroyed in a fire when the Yokoi family home in Nagoya was bombed during the war. As I have not seen this tea bowl myself, I cannot give my own opinion, but of the various theories, I think this is the most convincing. The late Asakawa Hakkyo, who was known as the god of Korean ceramics, was a man who knew more than anyone about Korean ceramics, and there is a story that he once secluded himself in Zuishin-ji temple in Kamakura and spent a week asking Asakawa Hakkyo various questions about Korean ceramics, and that these questions were recorded. It is also said that Asakawa Hakkyo heard that shards of pottery that looked exactly like the well were found at a kiln site near Sinju.
Buju is about 80 kilometers northwest of Busan, and about 16 kilometers north of Sacheon Port, and is one of the most important kilns in southern Korea. The Joseon Dynasty Annals of King Sejong’s Geography states that porcelain was produced in three places: Mokje-ri, Jungjeon-ri, and Weolma-ri, and that earthenware was produced in Ryu-ma-gok, Banryongjin, and Cheonhwang-hyeon, and that all of these were of poor quality. From the perspective of the people of Joseon, it is only natural that all Goryeo tea bowls are considered to be of low quality, and it is possible that the well was built at one of these three pottery kilns. Whether the well was built in Jinju or not can only be determined in the future by excavating and investigating the old kiln sites, but the Jinju theory is the most reliable today.
Well-made wells are particularly prized among Goryeo tea bowls, and although it is not easy to obtain one, there seem to be relatively many examples in existence. There are 19 types of Goryeo tea bowls recorded in the Taisho Meiki Kan, with a total of 230 items, but 75 of these are Ido tea bowls. This is probably because Ido tea bowls are highly valued, but it is also probably because there are relatively more Ido tea bowls than other types. In his book “Chakō-dangi”, Seiichi Okuda lists 30 famous Ido tea bowls by Kizaemon, Kaga, Hosokawa, etc., and then mentions eight Ido tea bowls of unknown ownership: Gyokuga, Kasukabe, Miyoshino, Ido Shiozuke, Kataomoi, Hime Matsu, and Kii.
“Among the items referred to by the name of Koryo, there are some that should be recognized as Ido, and there are many Ido Chaan that are not mentioned in the records. Although they are not included in the famous tea utensils, there have been dozens of Ido Chaan that I have seen at various auctions recently. Of course, these are not as famous as the great tea utensils. There are also more than ten other pieces that I have seen through other collectors, so I think that the number of existing Ido tea bowls is in the hundreds.
We don’t know the exact number of wells that exist today, but it is thought that there are at least no fewer than 200.
Traditionally, tea masters in Japan have divided wells and their related tea bowls into the following categories: Oido (also known as Meibutsu Teido), Koido (also known as Koido), Ido Koniiri (also known as Ko-hibite no Ido), Aoido, Ido-waki and Soba are also considered to be tea bowls that belong to the Ido category.
The characteristics of each type of tea bowl, such as the Ido-waki, Soba, and Ido-konin, are different from those of the Ido, but the distinctions between the Oido, Koido, Ido-konin, and Aoido are complicated, and there are quite a few that are difficult to distinguish. In terms of the meaning of the words, a large, imposing teacup with a high foot would be called a large teacup, a small, cute teacup with a low foot would be called a small teacup, a teacup with a lot of iron in the clay and a blue color would be called a blue teacup, and a teacup with a thin glaze and fine cracks would be called a teacup with small cracks, but these distinctions were not always made for each teacup. This is probably because it was not possible to compare many wells using picture catalogues and photographs as we can today, and they were distinguished by the connoisseurs of the time. For example, the old priest, Kanbayashi, recorded in this volume, and the Nara well that came from the Kuroda family are both large wells in terms of size, but the foot ring is low, so they are small wells, so we have decided to classify them as small wells. The koi-do is a small well, and the koi-taka is a small well with a small basin, but the distinction between the koi-do and the konin-yui-do is not clear. In the Taisho Meiki Kan, Volume 7, the koi-taka is listed as a konin-yui-do in the table of contents, but in the commentary it is listed as a koi-do, and the koi-taka is mistakenly listed as a koi-yui-do. The Koido and Kotaka owned by Masayoshi Kato, which are classified as Onuki, have the same kind of craquelure as the famous Tei-no-Ido, but the famous Tei-no-Oji, Ki-Ido, Ryuko-in, etc. have much finer craquelure. Even with a single tea bowl, the glaze can be thick or thin, and the craquelure can be rough or fine, so I think it would be better not to make a distinction between “well small craquelure” and “well large craquelure”.
Aoi-do has a lot of iron in the clay, and when it is fired it has a dull blue color, so it is called Aoi-do. Hōju-an and Yamanoi, for example, have a darker blue-black color than Oi-do and Ko-i-do, so they are suitable to be called Aoi-do. However, even the Shibata ware, which is considered to be the best Aoido bowl, and the Uji ware, which is generally understood to be Aoido, but is actually classified as Koido in the Taisho Meiki Kan, have glaze tones and colors that are exactly the same as those of Oido and Koido, and are distinguished from Oido and Koido by their shape, which is commonly referred to as sugi-gata (cedar-shaped), and the way the foot is made by scraping it with a single spatula. In addition, there are also tea bowls with a white skin that are close to the Ido style, and it seems that the distinction is based on shape and workmanship rather than color. Imaizumi Yusaku also mentions the Ido style as belonging to the Ido style, and includes the Ido Fuki-sumi, Zarameki Ido, and Sobai-te Ido styles.
I have heard the name “Ido no Fuki-sumi” for a long time, but I have never met anyone who has actually seen it. In his book “Korya Chawan to Seto no Chairin” (Koryo Tea Bowls and Seto Tea Caddies), Imaizumi-o says, “The Ido no Fukumoku is a type of small, thin-walled tea bowl, and the ink-black color is created by the skillful use of fire. . I once saw a tea bowl with the name “Kokonoe” written on the box, which was called “Koraibukiboku”. This tea bowl had a white background with fine light gray speckles, which were caused by the heat and the slight iron content of the clay. It was not the result of carbon sedimentation as described by Imaizumi-o, nor was it the result of tea stains, like rainwater leaking through a roof. There may be a tea bowl called “Fukizumi-no-Ido” somewhere, but it is a tea bowl that most people don’t know about, rather than being extremely rare.
Imaizumi-O explains the “zarameki-Ido” as follows
“The glaze of the zarameki-Ido is similar to the glaze on the side of the well. However, the soil in the area contains a lot of sand, which, when fired, appears as small spots on the grayish-brown glaze, giving the surface a rough feel. If you look closely, you can see that the glaze around the spots on the stone-like glaze has turned white. In any case, the roughness of the glaze is what the tea masters call the “roughness of the well”.
According to this explanation, it seems that the tea bowl is made of a body with a little iron content and many fine feldspar grains, and there are tea bowls that fit this concept in both North and South Korea. However, I have never come across a tea bowl with the calligraphy “zarameki” on the box, so I would like to stop here and introduce the opinion of Mr. Imaizumi.
In addition, Imaizumi-o wrote that there was something called Sobakute in the well, but this is Sobakute that was passed down in the Kaga Maeda family, and it is a powder-coated tea bowl, not a well. I have heard a story that an Edo gardener was invited to the Kaga residence, and from behind the glazed fence he saw the feudal lord holding a chohaku in the garden, and he mistakenly reported that it was a well, and this is how the story spread in Edo.
I’ve just given a brief introduction to the topic of wells, but I’d like to add a few of my own opinions on the subject of large wells, small wells, blue wells, wells by the side of a road, and wells by the side of a river.
Large Wells Large wells are also called famous wells, and are particularly prized among wells. They are large, imposing bowls with high rims, and can be said to be the best of the best among wells. The Taisho Meiki Kan (A Guide to Famous Tea Bowls of the Taisho Period) lists the following as famous tea bowls: Kizaemon, Kaga, Uraku, Hosokawa, Matsunaga, Fukushima, Sakamoto, Otokora, and Roso. With the exception of Roso, all of these are famous tea bowls of the Oido type, and there are no famous tea bowls of the Koido or Aoido types. But who exactly decided that these were famous tea bowls?
If you include them in the category of Higashiyama treasures, then there should be no famous wells. Perhaps they were designated as such by connoisseurs such as Kobori Enshu. Matsudaira Fumai made a distinction between famous wells and famous teapots, and even among famous wells, he designated the particularly outstanding ones as famous teapots. However, these days, all famous wells are designated as famous teapots, and even in publications such as the Taisho Meiki Kan, there is no longer any distinction made.
The well-known Oido ware has a rough clay body made from a strong, fire-resistant clay mixed with sand, and is covered in a thick, transparent glaze with cracks running through it on the inside and outside. The cracks are rough where the glaze is thick, and fine where it is thin. Many of the pieces are fired with a slight oxidation, and because of the slight iron content in the clay, they have a loquat-colored glaze. In rare cases, they are fired with a slight reduction, and have a faint bluish tinge.
The shape is thick at the rim, the body and the foot, and the bowl has a solid, dignified feel. Generally, they are large and have a high foot, but the foot is cut with a single blade in a bold fashion, creating a foot that looks like a bamboo joint. Many have strong, thick wheel marks on the body and waist, and this is also considered to be one of the charms of Oido.
The inside is deep, with a tea bowl groove and a tea pool, and some have eyes and some don’t. The Kizaemon, Kaga and Hosokawa, which are known as the Mitsui-do of Fumai-ko, all have no eyes, but this is because they were placed on top when they were stacked in the kiln. There are usually five eyes, and of course there were probably five eyes on each tatami mat. After long use, the rough, fire-resistant clay of the Ido type does not sufficiently fuse the glaze with the clay body, so the glaze peels off in flakes, and almost all of the part of the tea bowl that touches the tatami mat is exposed clay. Most of them are a dark brown color, but as Iizumi-ro also mentions, this is due to tea stains and is not the original color of the clay. In addition, Ido bowls are fragile because the clay is rough and the fire resistance is strong, so they do not harden when fired. Ido bowls almost always have a vertical groove around the rim, and many of them have flaws. Despite this, they are the most highly prized tea bowls, so tea masters and antique dealers don’t complain about the flaws in the bowls, and they think it’s no problem if the bowls have flaws. The Oido is characterized by the crinkled glaze, which is commonly called “kairagi”, and the tightness of the glaze on the foot and sides of the bowl, and this is considered one of the highlights of the Oido. The reason for the appearance of kaoragi is that the clay is scraped with a spatula, and the rough texture of the clay is one of the causes. Kaoragi generally only appears on the surface that has been scraped, and not on the surface that has been pulled out on the potter’s wheel. The main reason for the appearance of wakashibaikabuki is that the glaze uses seashell ash as a fluxing agent. Japanese pottery rarely has wakashibaikabuki because it uses wood ash, and these days it mainly uses lime. Seashell ash has a strong astringent taste and has the characteristic of shrinking the glaze.
Oido is a large, thick, imposing tea bowl, and you might think it would be very heavy, but it is surprisingly light when you pick it up. This is because the clay is similar to that used for Hagi ware, which is light, rather than the heavy clay used for Bizen ware. However, apart from the fact that the clay is generally light, not all Oido ware has all of these characteristics. Some are a grayish color instead of the usual white, and some do not have the characteristic plum-blossom skin or thick wheel marks. Even looking at the pieces recorded in the Taisho Meiki Kan, there is not much ume-kawa on the Nezu Museum’s So-yu, Fukushima, Oki, Ro-so, Ryuko-in, Kokonoe, and Oido, and the lathe marks on the Asano, Mino, Kokonoe, Ryuko-in, and Oki are not very noticeable.
When it comes to representative masterpieces of the Oido style, everyone mentions Kizaemon and Tsutsui-zutsu. Both were designated as national treasures before the war, and now Kizaemon is a national treasure and Tsutsui-zutsu is a designated important cultural property. Kizaemon has a good shape and foot, and Tsutsui-zutsu has a dignified presence. Among the famous bowls of the Zuie school are those of the Hosokawa, Uraku, Echigo, Soi, Tsushima and Mino schools. In addition to these, we have also included the works of the Sakabe, Horai (Takeno), Matsunaga, Ukon, Koka and Asakayama schools. Of course, there are also other famous bowls from Oido, such as those from Kaga, Ken, and Hon’ami, but for various reasons, it is regrettable that they could not be included in this edition.
Koido Koido is also written as “Furuiido”, but this name was given because it is smaller than Oido rather than because it is old. The clay, glaze, glaze color, workmanship, kaaragi (a type of crackleware), and the tone of the craquelure are all the same as Oido, and it is probably from the same period and place. However, they are generally smaller and flatter than Oido ware, and many of them have low, small rims. However, there are also large bowls with low rims, such as Rōsō, Kohama and Iwashimizu, so it is not possible to generalize.
The most famous Koido bowl is the Rokujizō of the Sumitomo family. It is a superb tea bowl with a slightly thin body, a slightly upturned rim, a tight foot ring, and a glaze with a rich flavor. The famous Koido tea bowls include Roshi, Bousui, Shio, and Kanbayashi, but Shio is a cute tea bowl that is said to have been a favorite of the daimyo Matsudaira Fumai. There are not as many Koido tea bowls left as there are Oido tea bowls, so you don’t get the chance to see them as often.
Aoi-do The name “Aoi-do” (blue well) is probably derived from the fact that the clay originally contained a lot of iron, so when fired it has a bluish-black appearance compared to the Oi-do and Ko-do. However, among the Aoi-do there are also ones that are exactly the same color as the Oi-do and Ko-do, and sometimes there are ones that are white in color close to the side of the well. Today, it is more common to distinguish them by their shallow, flat shape, and they are commonly referred to as “sugi-gata” (cedar-shaped). They are characterized by their thin bodies, straight rims, wide mouths, and tightly-walled rims, which are shaped by scraping off a single layer of clay.
Even the famous Nezu Museum Shibata bowl, which is considered to be the best Aoido bowl, and the Hōju-an bowl in Kanazawa, which is a typical Aoido bowl with its dark blue-black color, as well as the Masuya, Kumoi, and Hayato bowls, all have this shape. The Aoido bowl differs from the Oido bowl in shape, especially in that the foot is not as large and high as the Oido bowl. However, it is difficult to distinguish it from a small well, and for example, there are people who call the famous Ujii well in Nagoya a small well, and others who call it a large well. In the Taisho Meiki Kan, it is called a small well, but many tea masters call it a large well. It is not clear who first gave the name Aoido or when, but it does not appear in old tea ceremony records, and there are no old box inscriptions. Its origins probably date back to the middle of the Edo period. Aoido is similar to Oido and Koido in terms of glaze, but the body is different, and it is doubtful whether it was made in the same kiln as Oido and Koido. However, there are some pieces that are thought to have been made in the same kiln as Oido and Koido, even though they are called Aoido, like the ones from Boshida. Where in Korea was Aoido made? The most commonly accepted theories are that they were made in Yangsan, Gyeongsangnam-do, or in Hanyang or Dongnae. I have seen the shards excavated from the Dongnae kiln site myself, and although they are similar to the Aoido ware, the glaze and the way they were made are different, so they are not from the Aoido kiln site. I have not yet seen any shards of pottery from the Aoi-do kilns in Yangsan or Hanyang, so it is still unclear today where Aoi-do was made. In any case, it is probably reasonable to assume that it was made in Gyeongsangnam-do, just like the Oi-do and Ko-i-do kilns. There are more Aoi-do shards than Ko-i-do or Ko-i-no-kiri, but not as many as Oi-do. The most famous Aoido bowls are those in the Nezu Museum and the Houju-an temple in Kanazawa. The bowls in the Nezu Museum are elegant, while those in the Houju-an temple are more profound.
Ido-waki
Ido-waki is not a well, but the name refers to bowls that are close to a well, or in other words, bowls that are close to a well. Like Aoi-do, I have never seen any old tea ceremony records or old box inscriptions, and it is thought that the term “Ido-waki” was coined sometime after the middle of the Edo period. In Toda Rogen’s “Gogaku-shu”, it is said that “In Tokyo, since ancient times, there was a well called Koido, and Soucho was the first to call it Ido-waki, and from this, his name became famous”. The “Tea Bowl Appraiser’s Book” says “the later one is called Ido-waki”, but it is not clear how much later it is compared to the large and small wells, or whether it was made at the same time.
The construction is generally a little thinner than that of wells, and the construction on the raised part does not have the same free and unrestrained feel as wells. The glaze is a soft, transparent white glaze with a hint of blue or yellow, and it does not have the same deep, harmonious feel as wells. The shape is often a flat, shallow bowl, and the raised part is low, as with small wells, but many of them are slightly larger than small wells. There are rather few bowls with marks from the potter’s wheel on the body, and even if there are, the strong cracks that run through the body like those on the Ido bowls are present on all of them, and the thickly glazed areas are rough, while the thinly glazed areas are fine. Unlike the Ido bowls, which have a dignified, imposing feel, many of these bowls have a somewhat elegant feel.
Also, wells do not have circular indentations on the inside, which are called mirrors, or circular engraved lines, but wellsides do have circular engraved lines. It is safe to say that wells are limited to five eyes, but wellsides can have five eyes, four eyes, or even three eyes in rare cases.
Where were the wells made? This is another unsolved problem. I have heard that the wells were also made in Jinju, Gyeongsangnam-do, and sherds similar to the wells have also been excavated from the kiln sites of Goryeong and Mureung in Gyeongsangbuk-do, but the exact place of origin is still unknown.
Although there are quite a few pieces of Ido-waki pottery, the famous bowl from Ido-waki is the one that came down in the Hirase family in Osaka. It was owned by Nagasaki Shosai, a doctor from Kyoto, who was very fastidious and would not own anything with a flaw, but he called this bowl “Hakushoki” and treasured it, seeing the crack as a landscape. A similar well with no cracks was owned by Masatsugu Ton’o, and I saw it just after the end of the war, but it is now unknown where it is.
Soba
Soba is also called Sobaiko or Sobakusa, and there are three theories about the origin of this name. In the “Gogaku-shu” (a collection of writings by the Heian-period scholar Fujiwara no Shunzei), it is written, “The word ‘soba’ is a mistake in writing, and it is better to write it as ‘soba’. Originally, it meant ‘well-side’, so it should be written as ‘soba’, but now the word ‘soba’ is used to refer to noodles”. Imaizumi Yusaku also wrote, “The original meaning is ‘well-side’ – that is, ‘soba , and not a well, but it is something that is close to a well” (Korya Chawan to Seto no Chairin). In contrast, the book “Mekirigusa” says “Soba-kasu is a common name, and there is a type of medicine that looks like soba-kasu, so that’s why it’s called that”, and the book “Taisho Meiki Kan” says “This name does not have a difficult meaning, and it is because the color of the surface of the earth is similar to soba that tea masters have called it this way since ancient times. . There is no established theory as to which of these theories is correct. Soba is also not an old word like Aoido or Ido-waki, and it is likely that the name was given sometime after the middle of the Edo period.
Zoba looks similar to Aoido at first glance, but it does not have the same dignified feel as Ido. The base material is a rough soil that contains a small amount of iron, and it is characterized by the white quartz grains that can be seen in it. The glaze is similar to that of Ido and Aoido, but the glaze is slightly thinner and the iron content of the clay is higher than that of Ido but lower than that of Aoido, so it has a slightly lighter feel than Aoido. It is usually a light blue-grey color, and because of this it is said to resemble soba noodles, but there are also some that have oxidized to a light yellowish-brown, and those that have been made with a single piece of clay on one side, like the Zangetsu and Tamagawa styles, are particularly highly prized. Like the Ido, the glaze covers the entire foot ring, but the number of eyes on the inside and foot ring is usually five, the same as the Ido.
The shape is often a flat bowl, and as the Yamazumi family book says, “The shape is pleasing, the rim is slightly curved, and the foot is well-defined. . The shape and workmanship are similar to those of Ko-hiki tea bowls, and the lacquer is thinner than that of Ido ware, but slightly thicker than Ko-hiki ware. The period is thought to be the end of the Muromachi period, the same as Ido ware and Ido-waki ware, and it is still not clear where it was made in Korea. However, it is probably reasonable to assume that they were made in Gyeongsangnam-do. The number of surviving pieces is not as large as that of Oido, but it is larger than that of Ido Konuki-iri, and there are probably as many as Koido.
Amamori
Amamori is a type of tea bowl with a light brown stain on a white background, as if rain had leaked through. There are two types of ame-nuki: one with a soft clay body, and one with a hard clay body that is similar to porcelain. The hard clay type is called ame-nuki-katate. There are also types with a rough, sandy clay body, and the clay body of ame-nuki can be divided into several types. Amamori is often mistaken for Kohiki, and Imaizumi Oki, for example, wrote, “Amamori is a type of Kohiki tea bowl with a light brown, blotchy glaze on the surface,” but while there are Kohiki tea bowls that have amamori, the tea bowls that are usually called amamori are different from Kohiki. As we will discuss later, kohiki is made by applying a white slip to a blackish-brown clay body that contains iron, and then applying a transparent white glaze, but ame-dori has a white clay body and no white slip. The kohiki is delicate and refined, but the ame-dori is more robust and the foot is stronger than that of the kohiki. The characteristic of this type of pottery is that it has a white body with light brown, light gray, or sometimes dark brown spots, and if you look closely, you can see that the spots are actually caused by tea stains seeping into the glaze, or bubbles in the glaze, or tears running vertically along the rim, which is commonly called a “faucet”.
The Amamori ware was probably made in the same period as the well and well-side ware, but it is still unclear exactly where and when it was made. The Amuro ware is made from various types of clay and was probably made in several kilns, but it is reasonable to assume that the majority of Goryeo tea bowls were made in Gyeongsangnam-do or Jeollanam-do, and it is likely that the Amuro ware was also made in Gyeongsangnam-do or Jeollanam-do. There are not as many well-known examples of Ametsubame as there are of wells or wellsides, and there are not many that are considered to be famous bowls. In the “Taisho Meiki Kan” (1), the Iwasaki family’s Ogurayama, which is listed as an egg-shaped bowl, is also considered to be an Ametsubame, as it has a rim on the body.
Kohiki is also written as “kohuki”, and is made by covering the entire inside and outside of a piece of clay with a thick layer of white slip, and then applying a soft, transparent glaze on top. Hakeme is a type of pottery where white clay is brushed on top of a red clay base, and the term “Hakeme” is also used to refer to plain white tea bowls, which are made by applying white clay to the entire inside surface and to the waist of the outside surface. The shape is generally thin, with a slightly upturned rim, and the foot is low but relatively large. There are many shallow bowls with a plump body, but there are also rare deep bowls with a slightly upturned rim, like those of the Sui-Hakutou style.
Powder-coated tea bowls are valued by tea ceremony masters for the parts that are not covered in glaze, which are called “hima” in everyday language. White makeup is applied all over the bowl, but the glaze is applied by holding the bowl in the left hand and the ladle in the right hand, and pouring the glaze around the bowl. In most cases, the glaze covers the entire surface of the bowl, but sometimes there are areas that are left uncovered. These areas are covered in white makeup, but not with glaze, and over time they become stained with tea stains and turn a dark brown, creating a unique look for the bowl. Tea masters call this “himai”, and have long loved bowls with this look. The usual hima is shaped like a sliding door, from the top right to the bottom left, and this is how it looks when you hold the tea bowl in your left hand and the ladle in your right hand, but there are also rare cases where the hima is from the top right to the bottom left because the ladle is held in the left hand. The Mino ware from the Mitsuyoshi and Hatakeyama Memorial Museum of Fine Art, and the powder-coated ware from the Unshu Matsudaira family are examples of this. In some cases, tea stains seeped into the glaze through air bubbles and caused the ware to leak. The Nomura family’s Kohiki ware, which is listed in the Taisho Meiki Kan, is an example of this, and although there are light-grey rain leaks on the inside and outside, Kohiki ware with rain leaks is still called Kohiki and is not called rain leaks.
Brush marks were made throughout the southern part of Korea, and kiln sites with plain brush marks have been discovered in Jeolla Namdo, Jeolla Bukdo and Chungcheong Namdo, but it is thought that the powdered clay was made in Jeolla Namdo’s Jangheung. It is said that this is because the white clay used for the white slip is abundant in this area.
A considerable number of funi-ware have been excavated from the area around Boseong in Jeollanam-do, and there are also quite a few examples in Japan. There are also funi-ware that have been handed down from ancient times, and needless to say, tea masters respect these handed-down pieces.
It is not clear when kohiki was first made, but it is thought that many of the pieces were made in the early years of the Yi Dynasty, that is, in the middle of the Muromachi period, around the 15th century, the same time as Mishima and Hakeme ware. Kohiki is thin and white, and many of the tea bowls have a simple, elegant, and somewhat lonely feel.
Katate
Katate is the opposite of yawarakate (soft-handled) or warakate (gentle-handled), and the name comes from the fact that the clay is hard and the glaze is fired hard. Nowadays, we would call this type of pottery porcelain, but the tea ceremony masters called it katate because it was hard, and it is a simple, familiar word.
Katate is further divided into Katate Honte, Shirote, Amamegate, Sunagate, Enshu Katate, Gohonte, Ekate, Hanshikate, Gokurakate, Kinkaikate, Katate Mishima, etc., but all of these names were given after the middle of the Edo period. There are still many types of kate that do not fall into these categories, and they are made widely across Korea.
Porcelain, or ‘kente’, has been made in Korea since the Goryeo period, and it seems that there were many kilns in various parts of the country during the Yi Dynasty. The ‘Yi Dynasty Annals’ (Sejong’s Geography) lists 14 kilns in Gyeonggi-do, 23 in Chungcheong-do, 36 in Gyeongsang-do, 12 in Hwanghae-do, 31 in Jeolla-do, 4 in Gangwon-do, 21 in Pyeongan-do, 4 in Hamgyeong-do, a total of 136 places are listed, but the places with the most kilns are Jeolla-do and Gyeongsang-do in South Korea, and the tea bowls called “Katate” that have been treasured by tea masters since ancient times are probably made in South Korea.
There are also some that are similar to white porcelain, and some that have a slight iron content in the clay and are a mouse-colored. There are also some that have turned a light yellowish-brown due to oxidation, and there are also rare examples with iron-painted designs, which are called e-kente.
Tamago-te
Tamago-te is a type of tea bowl that is very similar to Kumagawa, and the name is thought to have come from the pale yellowish-brown color of the skin, which looks like an egg shell. This name was also given in the Edo period, and I have never seen it in old tea ceremony records or on old box inscriptions. Imaizumi-o wrote, “In a word, if you make this, you can call it a finely crafted powder-coated piece, and there is no problem with that. It is different from powder-coated pieces because it does not have a white slip, and is more like a hard-paste piece. The body is close to porcelain, and so some pieces have no cracks, and even if they do have cracks, they are rough. The firing is usually yellowish due to oxidation, but there are also some that are a light blue-grey due to reduction. It is strange to call this ‘tamago-te’, but there are various types of tea bowl that cannot be classified using current criteria.
It is not yet clear where tamago-te was made, but it is thought to have been made in the Gyeongsangnam-do region. Judging from its appearance, it is thought to have been made at the end of the Muromachi period or during the Azuchi-Momoyama period, and the slightly upturned rim of this type of tea bowl, which is similar to the Kumagawa type, is said to be a distinctive style of the mid-Joseon period. This type of tea bowl is relatively rare, and is not as well known as the Ido or Mishima types.
