{"product_id":"black-raku-chawan-by-raku-tannyu-10th-generation-kichizaemon-edo-period-kuro-raku-tea-bowl-with-tomobako","title":"Black Raku Chawan by Raku Tannyū, 10th-Generation Kichizaemon — Edo-Period Kuro-Raku Tea Bowl with Tomobako","description":"A black Raku tea bowl (kuro-Raku chawan) by Raku Tannyū (1795-1854), the tenth-generation head of the Raku lineage. The bowl arrives in its original kiri-wood tomobako, the lid inscribed in sumi ink and bound in indigo himo.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[ THE RAKU LINEAGE ]\u003cbr\u003eThe Raku family begins in late 16th-century Kyoto, when the tile-maker Chōjirō shaped the first low-fired tea bowls under the direction of Sen-no-Rikyū. Rikyū's wabi aesthetic asked for an object that disappeared in the hand — no wheel, no flourish, only the trace of palm and spatula. The lineage that followed has remained unbroken to the present day, each generation taking the name Kichizaemon and answering, in clay, the question Rikyū first set down. Within Japanese tea culture the order of esteem in chawan reads: Raku first, Hagi second, Karatsu third — a phrase memorized by every practitioner. To hold a Raku bowl is to enter a continuous conversation that has lasted four hundred and fifty years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[ THE TENTH GENERATION — TANNYŪ ]\u003cbr\u003eRaku Tannyū succeeded as head of the family in 1811 and led the kiln through the late Edo period. He is recognized for a quieter, more refined hand than the heavier seventh and eighth generations: walls drawn slightly thinner, the silhouette settled lower, the foot tucked tightly beneath the body. His kuro-Raku is iron-rich and deeply lacquered in tone, and he allowed warm reddish passages to surface where the iron-bearing glaze pooled or thinned over the form. Tannyū worked in a moment when chanoyu had matured into a private, scholarly practice, and his bowls carry that interiority — they do not announce themselves; they wait.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[ THIS BOWL ]\u003cbr\u003eThe form is hanchawan in feeling — a low, settled summer-into-autumn silhouette. The walls rise with the gentle inward curve characteristic of Tannyū's hand, the rim drawn with a soft five-mountain undulation that breaks the circle without dramatizing it. The kuro glaze is dense and quietly lustrous, gathered thicker at the waist where it reads almost as wet ink, thinning at the rim where the iron in the glaze blooms into a warm reddish-amber passage along one face. This kase — the deliberate breath of red within black — is one of the signatures the Raku family use to distinguish kuro-Raku from a merely black bowl. Inside, the well descends to a softly rounded chadamari that catches and holds the matcha. The kōdai is small, quietly cut, footed in the Raku manner.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[ KURO-RAKU IN THE TEA ROOM ]\u003cbr\u003eWithin tea practice, kuro-Raku occupies the most spiritually weighted seat. Black absorbs light rather than reflecting it; in the dim winter tea room, lit by a single charcoal fire and a paper-screened window, the bowl reads as a held silence. The bright green of whisked matcha rises against the black like spring against night soil. Rikyū chose black for this reason — it removes the bowl from the eye and gives the tea its full presence. A kuro-Raku by a head of the Raku family is, for many practitioners, the bowl one waits an entire lifetime to receive.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[ TOMOBAKO ]\u003cbr\u003eThe original kiri-wood tomobako accompanies the bowl, lid inscribed in sumi and bound in a woven indigo himo. The box is the second half of the work — without it the bowl is anonymous; with it the bowl returns to its lineage.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[ CONDITION ]\u003cbr\u003eNo chips, no cracks, no restoration observed. Glaze surface intact across body, rim, and interior. Foot reads cleanly with light age-consistent wear. The bowl presents as a quietly used Edo-period chawan that has been carefully kept across generations.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[ DIMENSIONS ]\u003cbr\u003eHeight 7.9 cm × Diameter 11.5 cm. Original tomobako included.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[ FOR ]\u003cbr\u003eThe collector of Raku, the tea practitioner approaching kuro-Raku for the first time, the museum-minded private library. A bowl to keep, not to display.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ BASIC DETAILS ]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ CULTURAL \u0026amp; ARTISTIC INSIGHT ]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ DEEP-DIVE COMMENTARY ]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ 日本語解説 ]\u003cbr\u003e十代 楽吉左衛門 旦入作の黒楽茶碗。共箱付。江戸後期、楽家十代の手になる正統な黒楽で、肉薄に整えられた胴に鉄分豊かな黒釉が深く掛かり、片身に温かな赤の景色が浮かぶ。見込み・高台ともに健全で、生涯の手元に置くに相応しい一碗。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ 日本語解説 ]\u003cbr\u003e十代 楽吉左衛門 旦入作の黒楽茶碗。共箱付。江戸後期、楽家十代の手になる正統な黒楽で、肉薄に整えられた胴に鉄分豊かな黒釉が深く掛かり、片身に温かな赤の景色が浮かぶ。見込み・高台ともに健全で、生涯の手元に置くに相応しい一碗。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ SHIPPING \u0026amp; PACKAGING ]\u003cbr\u003e• Dispatch: Within 1-6 business days\u003cbr\u003e• Carrier: Japan Post EMS \/ UPS (with tracking)\u003cbr\u003e• Packaging: Carefully wrapped with protective materials","brand":"The Modern Zen Archive","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":61839098839410,"sku":"260508_a_2805","price":3202.0,"currency_code":"AED","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0960\/5680\/3698\/files\/m95724115531_1.jpg?v=1778232303","url":"https:\/\/checkout.themodernzenarchive.com\/products\/black-raku-chawan-by-raku-tannyu-10th-generation-kichizaemon-edo-period-kuro-raku-tea-bowl-with-tomobako","provider":"The Modern Zen Archive","version":"1.0","type":"link"}