![A Chawan [Tea Bowl]](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2013/CSK/2013_CSK_09555_0016_000(a_chawan_tea_bowl_mino_ware_kuro-oribe_black_oribe_type_momoyama_perio031059).jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Transgression is meaningful in proportion to how strict the rules are. This outrageously deformed tea bowl comes from a short-lived period in tea ceremony practice - a rule-laden discipline - when practitioners vied with each other to push novelty to the limit. Needless to say, such chaos was not sustainable, and the practice of tea thereafter retreated into a cozy predictability.
Furuta Oribe (1534/44-1615), who exemplified this extremism, succeeded his master, the legendary Sen no Rikyu (1521-91), after Rikyu was ordered to commit suicide for displeasing the hegemon Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-98). Oribe, a famous general of samurai status, served Hideyoshi and the first two Tokugawa shoguns both as warrior and as Grand Tea master. His influence on ceramics was profound until he, too, was forced to take his life. Rikyu had revolutionized tea by substituting pedestrian objects of domestic or humble pedigree for the priceless and technically perfect Chinese treasures heretofore favoured. Whereas Rikyu favoured accidental flaws as an aspect of creative spontaneity, Oribe went a step further, introducing intentional irregularities that were the result of willful manipulation. This so-called "clog-shaped" bowl corresponds to what contemporaries described as Oribe's "warped" (hizumitaru) aesthetic. Triangular instead of round, the contours of the bowl have been worked so as to appear random. The lip undulates gently - somehow this unique bowl has a genial and at the same time exhibitionistic personality.
The wares associated with Oribe's taste come from kilns in his native Mino region. Their appearance coincided with the introduction of the new "climbing kiln" (noborigama) from Korea, a technical innovation that allowed greater control of the firing, and thus more flamboyant effects. The smooth lava-like glaze on this bowl has on one contrasting side pulled into dramatic bumps. The bottom is a symphony of "mistakes" including the potter's messy fingerprints, which would seem to greet and caress the user's own hand centuries later, reminding us how we are part of the great historical continuum inherent in every object we touch.
Furuta Oribe (1534/44-1615), who exemplified this extremism, succeeded his master, the legendary Sen no Rikyu (1521-91), after Rikyu was ordered to commit suicide for displeasing the hegemon Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-98). Oribe, a famous general of samurai status, served Hideyoshi and the first two Tokugawa shoguns both as warrior and as Grand Tea master. His influence on ceramics was profound until he, too, was forced to take his life. Rikyu had revolutionized tea by substituting pedestrian objects of domestic or humble pedigree for the priceless and technically perfect Chinese treasures heretofore favoured. Whereas Rikyu favoured accidental flaws as an aspect of creative spontaneity, Oribe went a step further, introducing intentional irregularities that were the result of willful manipulation. This so-called "clog-shaped" bowl corresponds to what contemporaries described as Oribe's "warped" (hizumitaru) aesthetic. Triangular instead of round, the contours of the bowl have been worked so as to appear random. The lip undulates gently - somehow this unique bowl has a genial and at the same time exhibitionistic personality.
The wares associated with Oribe's taste come from kilns in his native Mino region. Their appearance coincided with the introduction of the new "climbing kiln" (noborigama) from Korea, a technical innovation that allowed greater control of the firing, and thus more flamboyant effects. The smooth lava-like glaze on this bowl has on one contrasting side pulled into dramatic bumps. The bottom is a symphony of "mistakes" including the potter's messy fingerprints, which would seem to greet and caress the user's own hand centuries later, reminding us how we are part of the great historical continuum inherent in every object we touch.