Raku chawan from the Rikyu Shichishu series by Heian Shoetsu — one of seven bowls recreating the tea bowls most beloved by Sen no Rikyu himself. Rich yohen glaze in red, pink, and blue-gray. Full tomobako set with shifuku and booklet. Rikyu chawan Japanese tea bowl wabi-sabi raku fired ceramic matcha bowl hand-formed tea ceremony. Comes complete with original box, cloth, and leaflet.
🔹 [ BASIC DETAILS ] • Maker: 平安 祥悦造 (Heian Shoetsu) • Series: 利休七種之内「検校」(Rikyu Shichishu — Kenkyo) • Dimensions: H approx. 8.6 cm × D approx. 11.6 cm • Condition: Very good vintage; minor age-appropriate wear consistent with a bowl that has known use • Provenance: Tomobako (original wooden box) with maker's seal, shifuku (silk storage cloth), and accompanying booklet
🔹 [ CULTURAL INSIGHT ] Sen no Rikyu — the sixteenth-century master who refined wabi-cha — kept seven bowls near him throughout his life. He did not collect them for display. He used them. Each bore its own name; Kenkyo, meaning roughly "the inspector" or "the blind examiner," suggests a bowl whose depth is felt rather than seen. The Rikyu Shichishu series does not attempt to copy those originals. It attempts to remember them — to hold, in fired clay, the quality of attention that Rikyu brought to each. Heian Shoetsu worked within that inheritance.
🔹 [ DEEP-DIVE ] The yohen surface of this Kenkyo bowl carries a conversation between colors that no single firing decision could have scripted. Red bleeds into coral, coral recedes into blue-gray, and at the lip a faint orange warmth rises. Raku firing — hand-formed, low-temperature, withdrawn from the kiln while still glowing — produces exactly this kind of unscripted surface. The maker shapes the vessel; the flame authors its face. What you hold is the result of both: craft and contingency in permanent agreement.
The presence of the full tomobako set — box bearing the maker's seal, silk shifuku, and a booklet contextualizing the Rikyu Shichishu — means this bowl arrives with its story intact. Provenance, in the world of Japanese tea ceramics, is not a bonus. It is part of what the object is.
🔹 [ SHIPPING & PACKAGING ] • Dispatch: Within 1-6 business days • Carrier: Japan Post EMS / UPS (with tracking) • Packaging: Carefully wrapped with protective materials
