Specialty. Karamono Burin tea caddy. Belonged to Sotan Kamiya of Hakata (Fukuoka City). When Sozan’s watchman was about to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) because he felt sorry for his master, who had suffered huge losses from engaging in South Sea trade, his wife, who was Chinese, told him, “There is a small old pottery jar in my family. My master Souzan is a great admirer of tea ceremony utensils, and if he likes the jar, he may forgive me for my loss. If he likes the small jar, he may forgive me for the loss of it. Please think twice about cutting your own blade for a while. Sotan was so impressed at first sight that he forgave him for his loss. The Hakata Bunrin became Sotan’s first treasured item. Toyotomi Hideyoshi begged for it and was refused, and records show that he even tried to steal it at a tea ceremony but failed. Sotan was old and Hideyoshi had passed away, and he thought that the only way to preserve this tea caddy permanently after his death was to present it to Marquis Kuroda, the feudal lord of the Kuroda clan. Since then, the Kuroda family kept it as a family treasure, and it was not allowed to be seen by anyone except at the time of a change in the family’s leadership. (Hakata Sankikie Biography)
