Chojiro Black Raku Tea Bowl, Toyobo
Important Cultural Property
Height: 8.3-8.5cm
Mouth diameter: 12.1cm
Outer diameter of stand: 4.9cm
Height of the same: 0.7-0.8cm
This tea bowl has long been considered a masterpiece among Chojiro ware black tea bowls, and together with “Daikoku” and “Kogoku,” it is one of the seven types of Chojiro ware.
It is said to have been the favorite tea bowl of the monk Toyobo, who lived in Shinnyo-do Hall in Kyoto and enjoyed the sound of the pine wind on the fireside. Touyoubou, who was from a family of Shinto priests and was named Nagamori, is said to have moved to a new location in the 3rd year of Keicho, but we do not know for sure.
The shape of this bowl, which resembles a half-cut tortoiseshell shell with a clear border between the body and the waist, can be seen in the red tea bowl inscribed “Hayabune,” and it is said to be a shape favored by Rikyu. The body is thinly made, and a shallow vertical spatula can be faintly seen on the body side. The mouth rim is cut from the inside to the outside, and is of the so-called “Ichimonji” style, with no variation in height. The rounded ring-shaped base is relatively high and wide, giving the back of the base a deep and narrow appearance, but no significant artifice is apparent.
There is an indentation at the bottom of the wide inner surface, which seems to be the precursor of a tea bowl, and the body of the bowl has traces of a clawed-out surface. The interior and exterior surfaces are covered with a black glaze with some light brownish color, but compared to the shiny black exterior glaze, the interior glaze is less shiny. The rim of the bowl is nearly complete, with only a single flaw on the rim that has been repaired with lacquer, and a narrow vertical gutter.
Since this glaze color and the style of the high stand can also be seen in Koetsu tea bowls, it can be said that the characteristics of Koetsu tea bowls have already sprouted in Chojiro ware.
Konoike Michikazu, who was highly knowledgeable about Chojiro ware, recognized this bowl inscribed “Touyobo” as an excellent piece of Chojiro ware, and the following memorandum was given to him by Takeda Kyosenhoin.
Memorandum
I. The black Touyobo tea bowl that has been handed down in this family is requested by you.
Takeda Kyosen Hojindo
Mouri Sukenjin Seal
On the twentieth day of the first month of the twentieth year of the Genroku era
Konoike Michibei
Other accessories include the following,
Inner box, paulownia wood, with inscription on the front of the lid “Touyobo” by Rikyu
Sen’yobo black tea bowl, calligraphy by Soshitsu (hana-seki) on the lid in Rikyu’s possession, calligraphy by Soshitsu (hana-seki) in Rikyu’s possession.
Outer box, black lacquered, inscription on the front of the lid “Touyobo
There are some more.
