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The story of raku pottery and its significance in the
cultural life of Japan cannot be told in a few brief paragraphs.
To Japanese potters and their students, raku symbolizes a
revered way of experiencing life. The rich historical
significance of raku for the Japanese people derives from its
role at the heart of one of Japan’s most important cultural
traditions, as well as from its influence on the revival of
Japanese ceramics. What follows here is a greatly abridged
accounting of this dynamic history.
Ceramics in Asia
Japanese ceramics, like all aspects of the culture, was
greatly influenced by transitions that occurred periodically in
the ruling government. During the 8th to 12th
centuries, the central government began to decline as the ruling
power passed from the imperial family to a military government
in Kamakura. The result was a feudal society, much like European
society in the Middle Ages, wherein the loyalty and obligations
of the local lords were linked to military strongmen. Japan was
not a unified nation but rather a group of small principalities
held together by political and military alliances.
During this period there was little development in Japanese
ceramics. Trade with China was cut off, and exposure to Chinese
pottery and glazing techniques was lost at a time when some of
the best Chinese pottery was being produced. Japanese ceramics
declined severely, and in its place lacquer ware became popular.
Although the Japanese aristocracy began importing ceramics of
the Sung Dynasty in the 12th century, the real
influence of the Chinese on Japanese ceramics did not occur
until trade was reopened with the Ming Dynasty in the 15th
century and large quantities of Chinese pottery were imported.
This pottery was highly prized by the feudal and military lords,
and appreciation of ceramics reached a higher level. Within a
few years, several Japanese kilns were beginning to reveal a new
energy, and vigorous growth in ceramic production took place.
Zen Buddhism and the Way of Tea
Buddhism originated in India in the 6th century
B.C., and it spread throughout Asia and was adopted in Japan.
There were several sects and movements within Buddhism, and one
of them, Zen Buddhism, became very active and strong in Japan.
In the year 729, the Japanese Emperor Shomu Tenno ceremonially
served tea to over one hundred Buddhist monks. Thereafter,
whenever the monks built a new temple, they always planted tea
bushes in the garden. Tea became an integral part of the life of
the monastery, and by the end of the 14th century,
tea drinking had spread from the monasteries to the aristocracy.
By the 16th century, tea drinking had become an
independent and secular ceremony, and emphasis was placed on the
beauty and rarity of the tea vessels, as well as on the décor
of the tearooms.
Murata Shuko (1423-1502) is respected as the founder of the
Japanese tea ceremony. He was ordered by shogun Yoshimasa to
arrange a ceremony for the drinking of tea, and although there
was already a certain etiquette to be followed, Shuko set new
rules for tea drinking. He is recognized as the first Tea Master
in Japan and is remembered for having introduced the concept of wabi
to the tea ceremony. Shuko insisted that more subdued ware was
well-suited to the austerity of the rustic tea hut and created a
more evocative atmosphere when placed beside the more
ostentatious Chinese utensils. Later, his disciple Jo-o further developed Shuko’s
use of the tea hut and subdued ware. Wabi, stressed
by both Shuko and Jo-o, can be understood as the avoidance of
luxury and falsity. It
is the natural expression of feelings that are neither
ostentatious nor imposing, and its spirit became the essence of
the tea ceremony under the guidance of Sen-no Rikyu, a student
and disciple of Jo-o. Rikyu reformed the rules of the tea
ceremony to suit the ordinary people and surroundings. He
perfected the philosophy of tea and elevated it to its highest
plane. Sen Rikyu is considered Japan’s greatest Tea Master.
His tea rules had a profound effect on Japanese art and the
conduct of everyday life. His teachings emphasized the beauty of
humility and the love of simplicity. The spirit of the tea
ceremony entered into every aspect of Japanese life and culture
and was, in large part, responsible for the development of
Japanese ceramics, particularly the ware used for the drinking
of tea.
The Raku Teabowl
 There were many types of ceremonial pottery used in the tea
ceremony, and each reflected the Tea Master’s philosophy and
taste. It was the simple, austere red or black teabowl produced by Chojiro, son of a Korean tile maker, that
was highly favored by Sen-no Rikyu. Chojiro had settled in Kyoto
in the 1520’s, married into a Japanese family, and became a
naturalized citizen. Ceramic tile makers had long practiced the
technique of removing ware from the kiln with tongs while it was
still red hot. It was then placed on the ground to cool. This
was the procedure adopted by Chojiro for making his teabowls.
This is the feature that endeared the ware to Rikyu for use in
the tea ceremony because it created a thermal shock treatment
and, due to the low firing temperature, kept the clay from
completely hardening. This gave the teabowls the insulating
qualities which kept the tea warmer longer as well as a softer
feel which made them more appealing to hold in the hands.
In addition to the firing methods that make it unique,
Rakuyaki is never thrown on the wheel. It is always handmade.
This is extremely important when it comes to tea as the spirit
of the potter and his personality are more intimately conveyed
to and shared with the person who drinks from his bowl. By
keeping the shape simple and natural, the ego is left out,
making the bowl more approachable and non-obtrusive. The bowl is
held in the hands and appreciated by the drinker, thereby
allowing his gratitude for the potter, the clay, the fire, the
water and the air to be expressed.
Rikyu became so fond of Chojiro that he bestowed upon him his
family name of Tanaka. Chojiro made many teabowls, but seven of
them became very famous and were given their own names to
reflect their unique essence and circumstance. Initially,
Chojiro’s ware was known as "now ware" or
"Kyoto ware." The name raku comes from a gold
seal which was granted to Chojiro’s young apprentice Jokei by
shogun Hideyoshi six years after Chojiro’s death. The seal was
presented in his memory and bore the ideograph raku, a
symbol that is translated as enjoyment, contentment, pleasure,
and happiness. The written character for the word raku was
derived from Hideyoshi’s private pavilion in Kyoto, which he
had named Ju-raku-tei. Chojiro and his studio associates
had made the roof tiles for this pavilion. Although Chojiro was
the potter who originated the raku ware, it is Rikyu whose name
is most often associated with it because, as Japan’s most
famous Tea Master and the one who valued it so highly, it is he
who made it famous.
Raku Outside of Japan
The first potter to introduce raku to the Western world was
an Englishman, Bernard Leach who made raku pottery in Tokyo
between 1917 and 1920. He continued to produce raku pottery in
England in the 1920s and 1930s, and in 1940 he published
A Potter’s Book, which became the first official
description of raku pottery outside Japan. In the following
year, Warren Gilbertson became the first American to introduce
raku to this country when he exhibited several raku pieces among
more than 250 pieces of pottery at the Chicago Art Institute.
For the next 20 years interest in raku was marginal in America,
and it was not pursued seriously until the 1960s.
Paul Soldner is often considered the father of American raku.
A somewhat apocryphal story is often told about a gathering of
friends and students at his studio where he removed a glowing
pot from the kiln and placed it on a brick. The pot was bumped
accidentally, and it rolled down a hillside and into a pond.
Later, when the pot was retrieved, someone observed that the
colorful glaze pattern resembled pots that the Japanese were
making and calling raku. In truth, this was quite incorrect
since Japanese raku was never brightly colored. Sen-no-Rikyu had
commissioned Chojiro to make teabowls with subdued red or black
colors to match the spirit of wabi present in the tea
hut. Nonetheless, from that time forward, Soldner and his
students began adding the process known as post-firing
reduction after pots were removed red hot from the kiln.
Today, many of Soldner’s disciples still reduce their raku by
placing the ware on the open ground on a pile of shredded
newspaper and sawdust and then quenching it with spray from a
water hose.
It is not known when or where the practice of placing the
red-hot ware into a sealed container to cool in a  reduced oxygen
environment originated, but it is clear that this is a Western
modification of the raku process and certainly not something
ever done by Chojiro or any of the subsequent 16 generations of
Japanese Raku Masters. Raku is more than just a firing process.
It is a specific type of clay, glaze, building process and
firing method all culminating in an art form used to express the
profoundness of the Zen mind and its relationship to the Way of
Tea. It is a tradition steeped in spirituality, culture and
profound contemplation. This is what needs to be understood if
the true spirit of raku, Zen, tea and the wabi aesthetic
is to be correctly transmitted, understood, appreciated and kept
alive.
Ask any raku potter why they do what they do, and chances are
they will tell you that they love the process. One has to
appreciate the sacred values and significance which Japanese
ceramists attach to the raku process and the Rakuyaki –
the raku objects. The goal of my work is always to create a
piece that will enable the ceramic art lover to honor and
respect the precious traditions of Japanese raku pottery.
Hopefully, that may entitle a Western raku artist to claim just
a small part of this rich ceramic heritage.
Note: I am greatly indebted to the writings of Robert
Piepenburg, whose book served as the primary source of facts for
this abbreviated historical account of raku. For a more complete
telling of the story please see: Piepenburg, Robert. Raku
Pottery. Pebble Press: Farmington Hills, MI, 1994. Michael
Ricci, American potter and student of both raku and the Way of
Tea in Japan, contributed significantly from his personal
experience with the topics covered in this discussion.
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