An iron-glazed black tea bowl used for daiko-deme (tea ceremony) or kijin-deme (tea ceremony for nobles). The term tenmoku is a common name in Japan, not in China. There is no established theory as to the origin of the name “Tianmoku” since ancient times, but it is likely that it was a common bowl at Buddhist temples on Tianmu Mountain in Zhejiang Province, China, and was brought back by Japanese Zen monks who came to Japan in the Kamakura period (1185-1333) and obtained many tea ceremony techniques from the sacred site of Tianmu Mountain, and thus the common tea bowl at the temple there was called “Tianmoku. There is a theory that the name Tenmoku was derived from the fact that it was fired at Mount Tenmoku, but this is clearly an erroneous theory, as there have been no pottery kilns in the area since ancient times. There is a Jian kiln in Fujian province near Tianmu Mountain, which was famous for producing Jian Chan in the Song dynasty (960-1279). Jian Chan Tianmu is made of hard clay, blackish brown or purple-brown in color, and thicker at the bottom. The shape is slightly shallow and open, the base is low and small, and the mouth rim has a beak-shaped curve, which is considered to be a characteristic of the tenmoku type. The glaze is black, brown, or tortoiseshell in color, depending on the iron, manganese, and other elements, and also shows various kiln variations. The outer glaze edge is usually held at the lower part of the waist to reveal the bare clay. In Japan, the shape of the bowl is called tenmoku-gata, and the same type of iron black-brown glaze is called tenmoku-glaze. It is almost primitive as a colored glaze for hard ware. In China, in addition to Jian ware, there are Ji’an tenmoku from the Jizhou kilns of Jiangxi Province during the Song dynasty, Heoding ware from the Northern Song dynasty, and Henan tenmoku from the end of the Song dynasty, as well as Goryeo tenmoku and iron glazed stoneware from Manmeng in the Liao dynasty. Most of these are made of oil shale from coal strata and fired with coal. The use of tenmoku glaze in Japan began in Seto during the Kamakura period (1185-1333), and it is likely that they tried to copy the tenmoku glaze of the Jian kilns. There are many tenmoku glazed tea bowls and tea containers in the remains of old kilns in the Seto area, but there are no other variants other than hemoku found in them, suggesting that the age is slightly later than the present.
Japanese tenmoku tea bowls are named Seto tenmoku, Shiro tenmoku, Tsubame tenmoku, and Kikka tenmoku. The Eiroku Koshuhon of the Tohoku University warehouse of “Kimidai kanjyo choki” from the Muromachi period (1336-1573) lists seven kinds of tenmoku as earthenware: yohhen, oil drop, jian-chan, oosan, chan-nohkin-chan, and ash-colored cup. In the same book of “Gunsho Ruishu”, two other types of Tadatenmoku and Huangtenmoku are also listed.
According to the “Journal of Japanese and Chinese Tea”, there are seven famous types of cups: Yohhen, oil drop, jianjun, ash-colored cup, huangjun (yellow cup), oosun, and tanjun. The ancient classification of tenmoku tea bowls by Japanese tea masters is quite chaotic, and there are various kinds of tenmoku such as hiyajiru-toushi, hwatenmoku, tade-cold soup, rabbit-hoe cup, 芒変芒yo芒陽, hoshijian cup, nekitenmoku, true tenmoku, and so on. See each section. The reason for the classification into these types is that there are various glaze tones depending on the kiln and the type of burnt-out pieces.
In general, the glaze colors are pure black, purple-brown, and yellowish candy, and the luster and transparency vary, but some of the greenish ones are estimated to have come from Sichuan Province. The color of the base also varies widely, ranging from blackish brown or purple-brown to light brown. Generally, Tenmoku tea bowls are usually shaped with an open mouth and a tight base, so they should be placed on a Tenmoku-dai when used. In Japan, following the Chinese custom, the Chinese tenmoku is the most respected in tea ceremonies, and is used in the Daiko Shin and Gyo practices, and even today, tenmoku is sometimes used for offering tea, offering tea, and tea ceremony for nobles, but since Sen no Rikyu, when Wabicha was practiced, the choice of tea bowl has changed and tenmoku is rarely used for ordinary tea ceremonies.
