Height 7.8 cm, mouth diameter 13.3 x 15.8 cm, base diameter 6.1 cm
Raku Museum
On the back of the lid of the inner box, there is an inscription by Nyoshinzai Soza of the Omotesenke school, “Nidaime Kuro Teacup, Imme Kuroki Ukuyun Soza (Hanaseki)”. In the inscriptions on Koraku tea bowls by the masters of the Senke school, there are a number of inscriptions that refer to the “second generation,” but it is questionable whether the “second generation” referred to in these inscriptions is the commonly accepted Kichizaemon Tsunekei II. I think that the bowls were made in a different style from that of Chojiro ware based on the Rikyu style, and were described as “the second generation. It was later than Jyoshinsai that the Raku family clearly recognized Jokei as the second generation, and therefore, the “Nidaime” marking may have been a recognition of Koraku before Doyuri, rather than Chojiro. However, this tea bowl can be presumed to be by Tsunekei among the second generation tea bowls, as it has the “Raku” character seal, which is called the Tsunekei seal, stamped on a similar bowl.
The shape of the body with a step is different from the one favored by Rikyu and favored by Oribe, and the yuzu glaze, which is not fully glazed but triangularly shaped around the base of the bowl, is also an artifact of Oribe’s style, and the sticky red clay seen there is the same quality as that of Shiraku and Idogata tea bowls that bear the mark of Tsunekei. The inside of the base is flat and the center is slightly raised, and the sides of the base are spatula-turned in two steps. The black raku glaze on the inside and outside of the bowl is slightly hard, unlike general Chojiro ware black tea bowls, and although it melts smoothly, it is not shiny, which can be said to be a characteristic of Jokei black.