Shino tea bowls are a completely different type of Shino ware from today’s Shino ware, and are found in tea ceremony records from the Temmon to Tensho periods (1532-92), but their actual existence is still unknown to this day.
The earliest documents in which the word “Shino tea bowl” appears are “Imai Munehisa Chayu Shokukan” and “Tsuda Munenori Chayu Nikki”, in the former of which a Shino tea bowl appears in an article of a tea ceremony held on September 15, Tensho 6 (1578), and in the latter of which a Shino tea bowl appears in an article of a tea ceremony held from December 9, Temmon 22 (1553) to July 2, Tensho 14 (1586). In the latter, from December 9, 1553 to July 2, 1586, Shino tea bowls appeared as many as two hundred and fifty-five times, both in their own association and in other associations. Looking at the details now, they were used once at the Daikokuya (Shaogu) Association, five times at the Noya Munehisa Association, and 199 other times at the Mune and his own Association. In light of the above facts, the “Meimonocho” of 1577 and the “Sakai-kan” (1684-), both published in the first year of the Jokyo Era, both list Shino tea bowls as belongings of Tsuda Muneyoshi and Imai Munehisa. Since most of Shao’s old collection went to Munehisa Imai, it seems that there were only two Shino tea bowls that were in the possession of Shao’o, Muneo, and Munehisa in the tea ceremony records from the Tembun to Tensho periods. Next, in the article on Munehisa Imai’s Shino tea bowls in “Sakai-kan”, it is noted that “Munehisa Shino was a master of the Shino Soha school of tea ceremony, and his tea bowls were known as karachawan. It is unknown whether Munehisa Imai’s Shino Tea Bowl was once in the possession of a person named Sonami Shino, but it seems that the name “Shino Tea Bowl” is associated with the name of the original possessor, a certain Shino, which is possible given the naming style of tea bowls and the like at the time. In the article of the November 16th Munehisa-kai of “Tsuda Munenori Chayu Nikki”, it is written, “When we see the Shino tea bowl, it is finer than our tea bowls.
In other words, this is the impression expressed by Tsuda Munenori after viewing a Shino tea bowl owned by Imai Munehisa and comparing it with his own Shino tea bowl. The “earthen violet” in the text means that at least it is not white porcelain, and the “hi-haki” means that it was a kan-iri, or a kan-yao, according to the “Kundai kanjo-chouki” and other sources. Furthermore, when we look at tea bowls other than Shino tea bowls from this period, it is assumed that these Shino tea bowls were also celadon, considering that many of the Shino tea bowls, such as Jukou tea bowls and Matsumoto tea bowls, were celadon. If it was celadon, it would have been a thin and extremely elegant one made in southern China, such as Shikou Tesshi or Guan Kiln. In addition, the article “Shino tea bowls with a shell base for serving hot water” in the November 7, 1565 entry of “Tsuda Munenori Chayu Nikki” suggests that the Shino tea bowls were tenmoku-shaped or similar to this. However, in the “Chaji Hiroku” (1841 – compiled in Tempo 12), it is written, “The two tea bowls used for tea whisks are Shino’s specialty. They are made of white porcelain. It is made of white porcelain, with a white medicine on the surface and a thin, narrow kumquat, and the ears of the bowl are shaped like five different flowers. The bowl is now known to be in the same direction as the one in which it was made. In other words, there is a Shino tea bowl for placing tea whisks, and it is said to be a white porcelain handmade bowl. If this description is reliable, it is difficult to conclude that Shino tea bowls are celadon. The description of the tea bowl with its ears trimmed into five leaves may be the same style as the Matsumoto tea bowl described in “Tsuda Munenori Chayu Nikki” dated March 6, 1568 (Eiroku 11) as “Kisami fukatsu yari hishi fukatsu uchi e irishin ya δΊγγ
γ”. Incidentally, Matsumoto tea bowls are celadon.
