Hon’ami Koetsu
Hon’ami Koetsu (1558-1637) was born into the Hon’ami family, which, since the Muromachi period (1336-1573) in Kyoto, had been engaged in the appraisal and polishing of swords. The following is a description of Koetsu’s attitude toward his own way of thinking, or rather his attitude of mind, which he developed through his family’s work.
I have a lot of new things that are not as good as the old masterpieces, and there will be many more masterpieces that are not as good as the old masterpieces. Many of them are fakes.
I have no doubt that even a general who possesses many masterpieces of art will be of no use to you if you do not know what you are doing. However, if small-time samurai handle such masterpieces, they may cause misfortune, and small-time people should enjoy the good things of their own bodies. There are many things that have not been appreciated and appreciated only now, such as tools, ceramics, and all manner of things that have been made in later times, and things that were expensive in those days that will be less so in later generations.
Although it does not seem likely from the expression that he heard Koetsu’s own words and wrote them down, it is possible to imagine that he had this kind of idea. If all things were accepted with such an attitude of mind, the world would be a brighter place. Koetsu, who was involved with swords and ceramics, must have had a strong sense of originality and creativity.
Since “Hon’ami Gyoki” was written more than 100 years after Koetsu’s death, it is likely that many of Koetsu’s later writings are hypothetical. However, when compared with the letters written by Koetsu and the image of Koetsu depicted in “Nikkihaikusa” written by Sano (Haiya) Shomasu (1607-91, son of Koetsu’s nephew Mitsumasu and adopted son of Sano Shomayoshi), who was a personal admirer of Koetsu, it is clear that Koetsu’s thoughts and actual image, notwithstanding his descriptions and expressions, were strongly projected onto the work in terms of ideology. In addition, the document is believable in some respects, and its value as a source material is not low by any means.
For example, Shaomasu, who admired Koetsu in his later years, describes Koetsu’s attitude toward tea ceremony utensils in “Nikkihaikusa” (“Nikkihaikusa”): “…even new things that come to me are beautiful in their own way, as I have seen in the life of Rikyu,” which is also found in “Hon’ami Gyojoki” (“Hon’ami Gyoki”): “It is not a knife. This is in perfect harmony with the statement in Hon’ami Gyojoki, “It is a theory of inconvenience to say that cutlery is not made in the past and cannot be made in the future…” It can be said that Koetsu’s calligraphy and ceramics, which were steeped in tradition, were the result of this belief. Furthermore, Koetsu’s attitude of “I can see what is new, but I can’t see what is old,” was due to the fact that “Rikyu was alive and well,” Shaomasu said. In other words, the fact that Shaomichi says that Koetsu’s attitude of recognizing and using excellent works even if they are new is probably due to his proximity to Rikyu’s reign suggests that Rikyu was a major source of his attitude, and that today, much later than Shaomichi, we can see Rikyu’s attitude in the flow of history. Today, as we look at the history of the art form, it seems that the way of dealing with the creativity of the times was a vision shared not only by Rikyu but also by his predecessors in the Momoyama period who lived in the sukkafu school of sukkatsu. Yamakami Soji (1544-90), a disciple of Rikyu, is said to have written in the late Tensho period (1580s) the tea ceremony book Yamakami Soji-ki, which describes his preference for tea bowls of the time: “Tea bowls and inkstones in the Tang Dynasty are to be discarded. The attitude of “I am not good at what I do now, I am good at what I do now, I am good at what I do now, I am good at what I do now, I am good at what I do now” is, needless to say, an expression of the same spirit that Koetsu had when he wrote, “I can see the beauty of things as they are”, and it was inherited by Sen no Rikyu, and also by Furuta Oribe. It must have been alive in the hearts and minds of all the people who were part of the culture of the Momoyama period. It is no exaggeration to say that the vigorous Momoyama culture was formed when people asserted their own sense of beauty and lived with the times.
Koetsu was also famous as a Noh calligrapher of the first generation, but when we talk about his tea bowls, which are the most important of his works of art, we must consider an aspect of Koetsu that has not been well known to the general public, namely that he was a tea master. The tea ceremony of Koetsu is described in “Nikihagusa” written by Sano Shomitsu. Koetsu’s mastery of the tea ceremony was so profound that he was taught the art of daiko-demmae by Oda Yurakusai (1547-1621) and Furuta Oribe, two of the most famous tea masters of the Momoyama period. However, he lived his whole life as a pure sukiya, not as a master of tea ceremony. However, it is important to recognize that Koetsu was raised in an environment different from that of the general public as a child of an upper class merchant, as is evident in his tea ceremony lessons, and that Koetsu’s tea bowls are not the same as those of the general public. It may be said that this is the reason why Koetsu’s teacups have a certain elegance without falling into sarcasm, even though they have a strong artifice that could easily become extremely distasteful if the mistake is made.
The tea bowls of Koetsu, which Shaomasu wrote in his note, “I like the way they are made, and I think they will remain in this generation as a remnant of his work. The fact that most of the letters and other materials describing his pottery production date from after the first year of the Genna Era (1615-23), when he began to live in a hermitage in Takagamine, gives credence to the statement in the 83rd paragraph of Hon’ami’s Gyojoki, “I am better at making pottery than Ou, but I have no intention of making my family business my own. The “Takagamine” is a place where the people of the region were able to live.
It is not clear today whether or not there was suitable clay in Takagamine for making pottery by hand, but it is reported in the diary of Horin Seisho, the abbot of Shokuon-ji Temple, on March 13, 1640, that a potter from Higashiyama named Sakubei came to the temple to investigate the existence of clay suitable for pottery making in the mountains behind Shokuon-ji Temple, which are connected to Takagamine. It is likely that there was “good clay” in Takagamine, which is connected to the east. However, Koetsu did not make tea bowls only from Takagamine clay, but also from Kichizaemon Tsunekei of the Raku family, as shown in the following letter from the Raku family.
Since it is necessary to keep clay to make tea bowls so that it is easy to work with, it is likely that they sometimes brought in clay from the Raku family. It is interesting to note that the Raku family used both white and red clay from that time, and although all of Chojiro’s tea bowls were made of iron-containing red clay, white clay was also used during the reign of Jokei and his son, Nonko. In fact, some of the tea bowls of Jokei, Doyuri, and Koetsu were made of white clay.
It is also clear from a letter written by Jokei and Douiri, as well as from a statement in Hon’ami’s Gyojoki, “Kichibei now is a master of the art of music, and we are comforted by the fact that we have inherited his knowledge of medicines from him. It is clear that Koetsu’s shiroraku glaze is similar to what is known as Jokei’s incense burner glaze, and many of the kuroraku glazes are the same formulations as those used by Kibei, or Doyuri.
The book in “konokusuri no hon chiyawan” means a model, and it means that he had a tea bowl that served as a model for the glaze application. The glaze was applied “very faintly,” a very detailed instruction, and it also indicates that he made not only tea bowls but also incense containers. However, what must be kept in mind in this letter is the clause, “The kiln mouth of this time you are going to bake”, which can be interpreted as, “Please open the kiln mouth of the kiln you are going to bake”. This suggests that the “Taemon” kiln was not a raku kiln, but a hon-yaki kiln. However, it is not clear where the kiln of “Taemon” was located, but at the end of the sentence, he announced, “We will go down on the second day of the next month,” so it is thought that it was in a place somewhat far from Kyoto, namely, around Zesho or Nonomura in Tanba, and it is inferred from the tea bowls handed down as Zesho Koetsu and Koetsu-like bowls in Tanba ware. This can be inferred from the fact that there are tea bowls that have been handed down as Zensho Koetsu and Koetsu-style tea bowls in Tamba ware. Furthermore, what is interesting to many people who read this letter is the fact that he asked not only for firing but also for glazing, and even if he had a model tea bowl and gave detailed orders to glaze it in the same way, it would have been impossible to achieve the same result. I wonder if Koetsu was not so particular about it.
All of Koetsu’s tea bowls are made by hand. Unlike wheel-thrown pieces, teabowls made with tegakune are sculptural, so it is a more suitable method for the artist to express his individuality and artistry. He was free to indulge himself in the art of hand-holding.
Needless to say, the Raku bowl by Tegakune was started by Chojiro. However, as already mentioned in the overview of Chojiro, Chojiro’s tea bowls were formed based on the so-called “Soyei-shiki” (Rikyu style) favored by Sen no Rikyu, and the artist himself rarely expressed his individuality in his work, developing a style of his own, so to speak, but Koetsu’s style was not as unique as that of Chojiro’s successor Koetsu, on the other hand, learned pottery techniques from Kichizaemon Tsunekei, Chojiro’s successor, and his son Kibei, and enjoyed creating artistically rich tea bowls that were completely different from those favored by Rikyu in terms of form. Their style is rather similar to Shino and Oribe black, which are said to have been in the vicinity of Furuta Oribe’s tastes. It is not known whether Rikyu and Koetsu were acquainted or not, but there was a gap of about 40 years between their birth years, while Furuta Oribe and Koetsu were about 20 years apart, and Koetsu seems to have had a deeper sympathy with Oribe, considering their ages and the times in which they lived, and especially because he was a teacher of the tea ceremony. In addition, Koetsu was also a master of the tea ceremony, so his style was naturally close to Oribe’s. In addition, Koetsu’s ceramics were not only very old, but also very old. In addition, Koetsu’s pottery was made in the manner of Tesasabi from beginning to end, and it was impossible for Koetsu, who was close to the Raku family, to imitate the tea bowls of Rikyu, who was the basic form of Raku ware tea bowls.
The Akaraku tea bowl “Ichimonji” by Chojiro is a tea bowl for the “Kusano Kozashiki” tea ceremony in Rikyu’s later years, and it is said to have been a form that sought an ideal, although the appearance of the tea bowl seems as if it is sitting neatly and randomly.
The red Raku tea bowl “Otogozen” by Koetsu was also created as a red tea bowl in the “Kusano Kozashiki”, but its appearance is completely different.
It has a playful and amusing appearance, and the height of the bowl is a seemingly careless and outrageous expression, overflowing with a playful spirit, in contrast to Rikyu’s taste, which was based on a pursuitist spirit.
Furthermore, comparing Chojiro’s black Raku tea bowl “Okuro” and Koetsu’s black Raku tea bowl “Amegumo”, “Okuro” is plain black, while “Amegumo” consciously creates a glazed landscape color to seek a decorative effect in the tea bowl. This was not Rikyu’s taste, and Rikyu’s son Shao-an later highly evaluated Rikyu’s favorite black Raku tea bowls, saying that they were “in the spirit of the bizarre”.
While Rikyu may have been seeking something infinitely profound in the plain black, Koetsu was fully aware of the changes that would occur in the kiln, and in his glazing, he sought to reveal his own artifice in the same way as if he were writing on a piece of paper. If one were to stretch one’s imagination further, Koetsu may have hoped that the glazing would have a unique effect on the pottery by the collaboration of artifice and the nature of the flame, something that cannot be achieved in the world of writing with a brush on the paper.
This is what I feel when I look at Koetsu’s other tea bowls, but I can’t help but think that Koetsu enjoyed the process of making tea bowls by fully utilizing his own artifice and at the same time letting nature, the flame, decide how the bowl would turn out. Furthermore, Koetsu did not sit quietly in a quiet place like Rikyu, but rather, he never stayed on one idea, but sought for something new one after another in both form and glaze. I feel that this is a world that could not be achieved by a craftsman like Chojiro, in other words, a unique artist.
We can see the above-mentioned differences between Chojiro’s tea bowls and Koetsu’s tea bowls, which are favored by Rikyu, but when we compare Shino, Oribe Black, and Black Oribe tea bowls, which are generally regarded as Oribe’s favorites, with those of Koetsu, we can find many commonalities there. For example, the clear spatula cut around the mouth of the “rain cloud” bowl has similarities to Shino and Oribe black, and the interesting and unconventional high stand is also in the same style as Shino’s “Hagoromo” and Oribe black. In other words, there is no emotional expression in Rikyu’s taste, but in the tea bowls of Oribe and Koetsu, the various emotions of people living in the time period are directly expressed in the form of a single tea bowl. Therefore, if you want to live a life of seeking tea, you should choose Chojiro tea bowls favored by Rikyu, but if you want to freely enter the boundary of suki-style tea, you should enter the world of Oribe and Koetsu.
Koetsu, however, seems to have enjoyed the tea ceremony and made tea bowls while playing in a free and unrestrained environment. In some of his letters concerning pottery making, he seems to have been impatient to make tea bowls. The fact that the artist was making the dishes at his own leisure is also indicated by the fact that the process of making the dishes varied. It is thought that Koetsu probably started out by making a few bowls of the same style in a concentrated manner, and then made different ones at different times.
Therefore, it is not possible to determine which of Koetsu’s tea bowls is the standard work, and it is almost impossible to detect differences in the age of production. If this is the case, it can be said that tea bowls of excellent workmanship, which are attractive to everyone, have a high reputation, and that tea bowls of poor workmanship, even if they were made by Koetsu, were destined to be buried at some point in time.
By the way, Koetsu’s tea bowls can be roughly classified into three categories based on their style. The tea bowls of Koetsu can be roughly divided into three groups based on their style, i.e., a group of half-tube or cylinder style tea bowls with a square waist, such as “Fujiyama,” “Kaga Koetsu,” “Shichiri,” “Benzaiten,” and “Higashi” as shown in the illustration. There are also a group of tea bowls such as “Bishamondo”, “Otogozen”, “Kamiya”, “Yukimine”, etc., which are richly rounded with the mouth held inward and the body stretched roundly. However, if you look closely at the rounded tea bowls, you will find that each of them has its own unique taste, as if they are experimenting with the interesting taste of handmade tea bowls in their rounded appearance. It is truly interesting and enjoyable to look at the appearance of each bowl, apart from the classification of bowl shapes.
The steepness of expression in the “Fujisan” tea bowl, from the height and the edge of the bowl to the waist, is extraordinary. This tea bowl is considered to be the most prestigious among Koetsu tea bowls, and is also the only tea bowl in Koetsu’s kyobako (a box with the signature of the artist). It is said that this bowl was originally fired as a Hakuraku tea bowl, but during firing, the surface of the glaze on the lower half of the bowl, both inside and outside, was scorched and changed color by fire, creating an unexpected accidental effect, resulting in an unprecedented scene of a one-sided change of body. Fuji, and it is thought that the name was derived from the fact that no two pieces were alike. However, if it were only such an accidental change of scenery, this tea bowl would not have been so highly evaluated, but the workmanship of the tea bowl is also outstanding. Although it may look like an ordinary semi-tubular shape when seen from the side, the workmanship of the high stand and the side of the stand has an inexpressible severity as I have already mentioned, and there is a sense of solemnity, and I know of no other tea bowl with such a splendid high stand.
The key points of a tea bowl are the mouth construction and the base. Koetsu was confident and good at shaving the height of the bowl, but there are some things that show the difficulty in making the mouth of the bowl. Therefore, the decisive factor of Koetsu tea bowls is the stand, and although he enjoyed making them in different ways according to the shape of the bowl, there is something unique to Koetsu’s technique or atmosphere, which cannot be found in copying, no matter how skillfully he copied it.
Bishamondo” and “Otogozen” are two examples of interesting elevations. In particular, “Otogozen” deviates from the concept that the height of a tea bowl must be like this, just like “Hagoromo” of Shino tea bowl, and the unique style of Koetsu is born in a very careless manner.
Among Koetsu’s tea bowls, “Shigure” is the one that is most deeply flavored. Here, Koetsu’s unique artifice is already gone, and a sense of tranquility seems to surround the entire bowl. And what is very interesting is that there is an atmosphere similar to that of the Chojiro bowl, which is called “nothingness,” and I wonder if Koetsu reached this point after walking the path of unrestrained artifice. It seems to me that tea bowls are figurative works of art with a rich and curious flavor.
