Japan Spirit and Form #6: Japanese Tea Bowls

“The Cosmos in the Hand” is the sixth episode of the NHK series, “Japan: Spirit and Form” and it focuses entirely on Japanese tea bowls, a subject that is apparently very close to the heart of the series host, Shuichi Kato, who spends more time on camera here than in any other episode so far. We see a great deal of Japanese potter Kichizaemon Raku XV, the latest in a long line of Japanese ceramicists, as he makes a tea bowl from start to finish, and is interviewed by Kato in one key sequence, all in Japanese with English subtitles. The roots of Japanese pottery in Chinese ceramics is explored as is the influence of Japanese pottery on European artists and potters, including one Frenchman, Claude Champi, who is interviewed. If you like this program, please also visit my channel to see "Japanese Tea Ceremony (vintage color film)" and other titles devoted to Japanese art and culture.

[@jimjimgl3]

This was produced in 1989, if anyone was a bit confused by how old the filming appears.

[@isabelanascimentofrade5244]

i love this video, precious

[@Wastelander13]

Our lives should be much more art, like the Japanese bowls! Thank you for sharing this great video!

[@michaelbuckler]

I find these tea-bowls so pleasing and satisfying.

[@PolarChimes]

This is an excellent documentary, and it got me thinking: I wonder if I could make something out of wood in a spirit similar to what's placed into making tea bowls. I imagine creating objects by hand with the help of a few basic tools. Allowing some areas to be polished, some varnished, and others rather rough, suggesting the time and motion that went into their birth as a unique thing. Doing this, I could choose cuts of wood carefully, using boards that are considered high grade as well as cheaper lumber if it has a nice grain pattern or if it somehow calls to me. Perhaps some areas that were originally cut straight would be sanded to be a little wavy, in order to match the curve of a grain pattern or place movement into the piece. Another thing that comes to mind is creating aggregates out of irregular chips of wood and some special type of glue or resin, which could be dried into blocks and used as inlays or something else. I imagine now a box that uses this material as part of its lid. It can be seen through slightly, hinting at the contents inside the box. Perhaps some areas of the material would be left smooth so that you could see through it, and other areas would be sanded so that the inside would be invisible. I will give it a try soon.

[@carloiurcovici]

3:03 - I have never pulled out such a deep philosophy from my Ikea mug

[@user-ed6km8nq2s]

+Splinter Maker IKEA is also deep philosophy

[@lorenzoamato953]

When I try to mount Ikea furniture, OTOH, the names of different Gods, saints, and miscellanea people come to my mouth, not always in a flattening way though.

[@jeanrutka4517]

Wonderful! Thank you.

[@laurasherret1531]

excellent! I now have a much better understanding of the Japanese tea bowl and its unique history

[@tigerdicky8096]

A wonderful documentary!

[@felix8755]

Yo that intro was dope

[@spencerdore2145]

it was

[@Nicky-ne6eb]

facts

[@treasuresofoldtimes9649]

I am the dealer of Japanese antique pottery. Thank you for sharing the impressive video.

[@user-bg2oe3em1p]

いいねー流石です😮

[@zenmeditationchanting]

Beautiful, thanks for sharing! 🙏

[@comontoshi]

Looks like some sort of igneous stone . . . the islands of Japan are volcanic. To me they had the luster of basalt. 🤔 . . .

[@Josh-fc1rr]

music = mind blowing

[@ronmello1]

Wonderful....

[@sunburnramthem2373]

stunning

[@luancarvalhomatos7888]

Vendo esse video eu chapei demais sem nem usar nada

[@gerhardtstaufenbiel]

Shuichi Kato im Gespräch mit dem derzeitigen Oberhaupt der Rakufamilie Kichizaemon XV in der 15. Generation Raku. Man kann Kichizaemon bei der Herstellung von Teeschalen beobachten. Kichizaemon ist ein Wanderer zwischen den Welten. Er hat in Rom an der Kunstakademie studiert und er führt die uralte Tradition der Raku Familie fort. Ein wertvolles historisches Dokument aus dem Jahr 2008.

[@rosen-garten629]

Wonderful, thank you very much for sharing! A question to the potters arround here: anyone any idea what kind of stone the pebbles are, he makes his glaze of? Reminds my of (round washed) greywacke...

[@krestonosets68]

Where can I buy old Raku Kichizaemon bowl?

[@paolafonsek]

maravilhoso!!

[@chrissingleheart]

The Raku tea bowl is a beautiful parallel of the imperfection of man. "But we have this precious treasure [the good news about salvation] in [unworthy] earthen vessels [of human frailty], so that the grandeur and surpassing greatness of the power will be [shown to be] from God [His sufficiency] and not from ourselves." (2 Corinthians 4:7 AMP)

[@liammcooper]

Kichizaemon is as genius

[@Acquavallo]

Ａｅｓｔｈｅｔｉｃ 日本

[@bitobito6366]

like a Japanese tea bowl i want one where found

[@hindsightpov4218]

Try eBay.

[@saffron1996]

etsy... i just got myself a bowl made from an artist like shown here

[@krestonosets68]

@@saffron1996 no way, what is the name

[@krestonosets68]

@@hindsightpov4218 ebay is fake, man

[@vivianagamino3831]

Getting Tekken 2 vibes from the opening xD

[@comontoshi]

A chawan one at a time . . . 😛👍

[@kanchanapornsuwannagoot5365]

😍

[@P.aS.quaillai]

i wis there were captions

[@fil471]

No centrifugal forces here, the clay is too dry and the wheel turns too slow...

[@S.G.2]

Does anyone know the name of the white guy with a mustache who is speaking presumably Japanese at 42:20?

[@spencerdore2145]

that's french hahaha

[@savyhendrixvideo]

haha 41:43 his name is Claude Champi and he's a French potter (and speaking French)

[@onceltom]

Phds !

[@herblopez8657]

Shout out to all my blood homeboys

[@Shcreamingreen]

Hyouge Mono anyone...?

[@captainbritish3385]

RAID AREA 51!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@BrandonTWills]

5:05 - why talk about China ceeramic traditions when Japan's ceramics are the oldest in the world. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pottery_and_porcelain#History_to_19th_century

[@rodparsons521]

"One of the oldest.... "

[@hindsightpov4218]

Brandon Wills China’s ceramic culture and its overall civilization is thousands of years older than Japan’s. Korea’s ceramic culture and its overall history is also several thousands of years older than Japan’s. Both China and Korea have greatly influenced Japanese culture and civilization, including Japanese ceramics. When it comes to Japanese teaware, Korean ceramics has been particularly influential. This video is inaccurate by saying this style of teaware originated in Japan, being uniquely Japanese, when its origins are actually Korean, specifically Korean Buncheong/Punch’ǒng ceramics. Most modern day Japanese potters are very frank about this. Legendary Japanese potter Shōji Hamada was heavily influenced by Korean style ceramics. These days, it’s not unusual for Japanese teaware potters to go to Korea to see the origins of Japanese teaware and to pick up new ideas.

[@fil471]

hmmm... really not sure about that.. Japan inherited a lot from china arts...

[@ShaneyElderberry]

The reason for mentioning the ceramics of the Song Dynasty is because the development of powdered, whisked tea began in the Song Dynasty, along with the tea bowls mentioned (hare fur and oil drop style glazes). The general shape of Korean and Japanese teabowls is based on Song ceramics. The appreciation of tea in this manner is also based on Song literati-scholar patronage of the ceramic vessels and accessories. It amounts to small changes to the teabowl glaze/firing and tea cultivars.

[@ShaneyElderberry]

@@hindsightpov4218 In a small sense, Brandon is historically right to make the claim about Japanese ceramics and their age. Archaeology has shown the Jomon ceramics to be almost the oldest surviving examples of pottery on the planet - the two exceptions seem to have been ancient tribes in Jiangxi & Hunan. Even so, we both understand that the Jomon pottery has no correlation to the teabowls of Japan, which were first based on Song dynasty teabowls via Korean alterations and updates to Song ceramic styles.

[@arielvalencia4583]

I wuoln not compare ye raku vase with the pollock shit.... nothing to see...

[@d.jensen5153]

Nothing but praise in these comments. Yet if everything were fired with such incredible inefficiency, we'd have long ago denuded every forest in the world. Art is often incredibly wasteful of resources. I'd take an IKEA mug any day.

[@JScarper]

Fortunately your opinion is irrelevant, you philistine.

[@krestonosets68]

As long as your Ikea mug gives you an enjoyment

[@googleuser1964]

That's true... Also any form of art has big carbon foot print with no practicle purpose .. But we humans need them for our social well-being.

[@lorenzoamato953]

But the point is that nothing else is fired that way. The Raku family tradition is one of a kind, and it is per se an archeological remain of the Edo period and value-system. Even the fact that the 10 coworkers were descendant from those who were working with Kichizaemon's ancestors is telling: it's a feudal micro-bubble, and impacts nothing as far as human resources are concerned (certainly less than Ikea!!!).

[@d.jensen5153]

@@JScarper I am a philistine. But what I wrote is less an opinion than fact. Continuous production counterflow kilns achieve incredible thermal efficiencies.

[@Siye8899]

Tanta mmda por un tazón todo feo