A Tea Addict's Journal

A new toy

April 29, 2008 · 6 Comments

Yes, many new toys these days, this one’s slightly different though

A chawan, a kuroraku hira chawan, specifically, but a chawan nonetheless.

I don’t drink much matcha, but I plan to play with it a bit in the coming days. This stuff isn’t so good for me in the winter, that’s for sure, but in hot summer days, a nice cool cup of matcha can actually be quite nice.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to decipher the artist’s seal

My first instinct is that this is a really stylized version of the word “raku” or “le” in Chinese. I tried thinking up what else it could be, but can’t. It’s a funny shaped raku, for sure…. or is it matsuraku (in which case this is upside down)? I can’t tell. Does anybody have any idea where one can go find better info on such things? Japanese books are fine…

Categories: Objects · Old Xanga posts
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6 responses so far ↓

  • Anonymous // April 29, 2008 at 8:24 am | Reply

    It’s classic black (Kuro) Raku.  They are typically styled in this manner, black hand molded with gold chop.  As for the Japanese.. one has no idea.  Can’t wiat for your insight and experiences with matcha (not me… the tea of course)!

    😉

    Peace

  • xiaobao2008 // April 29, 2008 at 8:29 am | Reply

    Japanese Porcelain marks
    http://www.gotheborg.com/marks/index_jap_marks.htm

  • Anonymous // April 29, 2008 at 11:42 am | Reply

    Looks like a summer form of a bowl. The tea should cool faster than in an more narrow bowl. But I’m no expert in japanese chawan.

  • MarshalN // April 29, 2008 at 11:43 am | Reply

    Yeah, hira (flat) chawans are meant for summertimes…. the winter ones are taller, usually.

  • Anonymous // April 29, 2008 at 12:41 pm | Reply

    I like the plain black raku. Simply beautiful. But they are expensive so I don’t own one. I’ve read they break easily because of the softness of the clay. Another point that keeps me away from a raku is that in chanoyu they are used for koicha (methinks) which I drink very seldom.

    @marshaln: yesterday I posted a comment to the pot-seasoning-entry. It seems it was pushed too far down by the new entries. Maybe you wanna take a look.

  • MarshalN // April 29, 2008 at 3:20 pm | Reply

    Kuroraku is only expensive if you have to get it through five middlemen…. this particular bowl cost me $35 or $40 with shipping and everything.

    I need a chasen and some decent matcha, and then I’m in business….

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