{"product_id":"raku-kichizaemon-xiii-seinyu-red-chawan-crane-motif-sokuchusai-attestation-tomobako","title":"Raku Kichizaemon XIII Seinyu Red Chawan — Crane Motif, Sokuchusai Attestation, Tomobako","description":"🔹 [ BASIC DETAILS ]\u003cbr\u003eRaku clay · Red glaze (aka-chawan) · Overglaze enamels · Paulownia tomobako · Shifuku silk pouch · Sokuchusai kakitsuke · Raku seal impressed · Kyoto, Japan · 13th generation · Omotesenke iemoto inscription · Crane and pine motif · Mid-20th century\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e📐 Width approx. 12 cm · Height approx. 8.5 cm\u003cbr\u003e🏷 SKU: 260412_a_2721\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ CULTURAL \u0026amp; ARTISTIC INSIGHT ]\u003cbr\u003eTo hold this bowl is to hold four centuries of intention.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRaku Kichizaemon XIII — known by his artist name Seinyu (惺入, 1887–1944) — was the thirteenth head of the Raku family, the lineage that Chojiro founded in the sixteenth century at the request of Sen no Rikyu himself. Each generation of the Raku house has produced tea bowls by hand, one at a time, in the tradition of tezukuri: formed without the wheel, fired in a small kiln at low temperature, shaped by the maker's palms alone. Seinyu carried that lineage into the twentieth century with disciplined fidelity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis bowl is finished in the warm coral-red of aka-chawan — a glaze tradition distinct from Raku's more familiar black. The surface carries the characteristic soft crackle of raku firing: a skin that breathes, that holds the memory of heat. On the front face, Seinyu painted a crane (tsuru) among pine trees in overglaze enamels — greens, blacks, and cream white applied with deliberate restraint. The crane does not fill the bowl; it inhabits it. The reverse carries a painted landscape in dark pigment, quieter, a counterpoint. At the foot ring, the deeply impressed '楽' seal — circular, scalloped-bordered — marks this as authentic Raku house work.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe paulownia tomobako is inscribed in Seinyu's own hand. Inside the lid, a kakitsuke (attestation inscription) by Sokuchusai — Iemoto XIII of the Omotesenke school of tea — carries his kao (personal monogram). When two thirteenth-generation masters — one the maker, one the witness — are bound together in a single set of documents, the object becomes something beyond craft. It becomes testimony.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe seller notes that no formal external authentication has been conducted (正式鑑定は受けておりません). The seal, the box inscription, and the attestation are consistent with known Raku house and Omotesenke examples. Serious collectors will wish to conduct independent verification.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ DEEP-DIVE COMMENTARY ]\u003cbr\u003eThe crane-and-pine combination (tsurukomatsu) is among the most durable auspicious pairings in Japanese visual culture — longevity, fidelity, constancy. On a tea bowl, it carries the specific weight of chakai seasons: the motif appears most naturally in new-year gatherings (hatsugama) and formal celebrations. Seinyu's choice to render the crane in overglaze enamels on red Raku ground — rather than in the underglaze iron pigment more common to his black bowls — reflects a deliberate tonal decision. Warmth meeting warmth. The coral-red ground does not recede beneath the crane; it participates.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSokuchusai (即中斎, 1901–1979) served as the thirteenth grand master of Omotesenke from 1936 until his death. His reign spanned the war years and the reconstruction of chado culture in postwar Japan. A kakitsuke bearing his hand is not merely an endorsement — it is a record of transmission, of a bowl entering the formal vocabulary of a school. That this attestation connects the thirteenth Raku generation to the thirteenth Omotesenke generation is not coincidence the connoisseur will overlook.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe shifuku (silk pouch) and accompanying cloth (共布) are present and intact, completing the transmission set. In formal chado context, the shifuku is not peripheral; it is part of the object's identity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e---\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e🔹 [ 日本語説明 ]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e【基本情報】\u003cbr\u003e楽吉左衛門十三代 惺入（1887〜1944年）による鶴文赤茶碗。共箱・仕覆・共布付き。幅約12cm、高さ約8.5cm。箱蓋裏に表千家十三代 即中斎の書付・花押あり。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e【文化的背景と芸術的解説】\u003cbr\u003e十六世紀、千利休の依頼により長次郎が創始した楽家。その十三代目・惺入が手づくりで制作した赤茶碗。赤樂釉の温かみある珊瑚色の地に、上絵具で鶴と松を描く。足裏には「楽」印（丸形、刻印）。共箱は惺入自筆。箱蓋裏に即中斎の書付・花押が記される。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e即中斎（1901〜1979年）は表千家十三代家元として、戦中から戦後にかけて茶道文化を支え続けた。楽家十三代と表千家十三代、二人の「十三代」が一つの茶碗に結びついている。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e鶴松の取り合わせは長寿と吉祥の象徴として、初釜など改まった茶会に用いられる意匠。赤樂の地に上絵で描かれた鶴は、静かな存在感を放つ。\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e【補足】出品者より「正式鑑定は受けておりません」との記載あり。印章・箱書・書付の様式は既知の楽家・表千家資料と整合しています。真剣にお求めの方は独自に鑑定されることをお勧めします。\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":61770752983410,"sku":"260412_a_2721","price":2209.0,"currency_code":"AED","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0960\/5680\/3698\/files\/m44256531808_1.jpg?v=1775987657","url":"https:\/\/checkout.themodernzenarchive.com\/products\/raku-kichizaemon-xiii-seinyu-red-chawan-crane-motif-sokuchusai-attestation-tomobako","provider":"The Modern Zen Archive","version":"1.0","type":"link"}