Journal

Incised character filled with white slip on the body of an aka-Raku tea bowl — an incised mark (kokumei), one of the four kinds a Japanese pot can carry

How to Read Japanese Pottery Marks and Potter's...

A Japanese pottery mark — mei (銘) — is read in three passes: where it sits, how it was made, and what kind of name it is. The third is...

How to Read Japanese Pottery Marks and Potter's...

A Japanese pottery mark — mei (銘) — is read in three passes: where it sits, how it was made, and what kind of name it is. The third is...

Foot of an e-Karatsu tea bowl showing bare sandy clay, throwing rings on the body and an iron-brushed grass motif — the three places a kiln is read

Raku vs Hagi vs Karatsu: How to Tell Them Apart

Raku, Hagi and Karatsu are told apart by three things: how the bowl was formed, what colour the clay is where it is bare, and what the glaze does over...

Raku vs Hagi vs Karatsu: How to Tell Them Apart

Raku, Hagi and Karatsu are told apart by three things: how the bowl was formed, what colour the clay is where it is bare, and what the glaze does over...

Split foot (warikodai) of a Hagi ware tea bowl, showing hand-trimming marks, exposed clay and stained crazing — the areas where a bowl's age is read

How to Tell if a Japanese Tea Bowl Is Antique o...

Age in a Japanese tea bowl is read from the foot, the unglazed clay, and the pattern of wear — not from the glaze or the silhouette, which are the...

How to Tell if a Japanese Tea Bowl Is Antique o...

Age in a Japanese tea bowl is read from the foot, the unglazed clay, and the pattern of wear — not from the glaze or the silhouette, which are the...

Black Raku matcha tea bowl by Rakunyu, kuro-raku chawan hand-shaped in the lineage Sen no Rikyu established

Why Rikyu Chose Death Over Apology | Zen Archive

水脈 #06 The Gate and the Blade: Why Rikyu Chose Death He could have apologized. That is the part of this story that people forget, or perhaps the part they...

Why Rikyu Chose Death Over Apology | Zen Archive

水脈 #06 The Gate and the Blade: Why Rikyu Chose Death He could have apologized. That is the part of this story that people forget, or perhaps the part they...

Japanese kogo incense container and agarwood prepared over ash for a quiet Kodo ceremony

Kodo: The Art of Listening to Incense | The Mod...

In Japan, incense is not simply smelled. It is heard. The word is kiku — to listen. The same verb used for music, for a story, for a presence that...

Kodo: The Art of Listening to Incense | The Mod...

In Japan, incense is not simply smelled. It is heard. The word is kiku — to listen. The same verb used for music, for a story, for a presence that...

Quiet Japanese tea bowl in soft light for The Tea of No-Tea Zen Tea archive entry

The Tea of No-Tea: Eternity in a Bowl | The Mod...

The Archive — Entry 008 The Tea of No-Tea (無茶の茶) 1. Letting Go of Awareness In the moment we lose ourselves in something, we are beautiful. Or when we think...

The Tea of No-Tea: Eternity in a Bowl | The Mod...

The Archive — Entry 008 The Tea of No-Tea (無茶の茶) 1. Letting Go of Awareness In the moment we lose ourselves in something, we are beautiful. Or when we think...