About Raku-Yaki Red Raku Chawan -Rakunyū- Kyoto

A red Raku tea bowl from the Rakunyū kiln in Kyoto, formed by hand without a wheel and fired in the low, fast Raku manner that has defined Kyoto tea bowls since the sixteenth century. The walls rise nearly straight from a small foot and lean gently inward at the lip, a half-cylinder form that sits low in both hands.

The red comes from the clay surface, not from a coloured glaze. An iron-bearing wash under a clear glaze turns a warm, mottled red in the kiln, deepening to crimson where the glaze pools and thinning to a paler tone across the shoulders. Across one side, the firing has left a field of charcoal grey and black, crossed by a fine net of crazing, and two soft black marks sit on the front like brushstrokes. No two bowls from the same kiln carry these marks the same way.

The foot is left bare, showing the pale, open-grained body beneath. Inside, the glaze gathers at the base in a shallow tea pool where the whisk works. The rim is uneven by intention. Raku ware is porous and lighter than it looks; the bowl warms slowly in the hands and holds the tea at temperature through a sitting.

About the Rakunyū Kiln

The Rakunyū kiln (楽入窯) is one of the established Raku ware workshops of Kyoto, the city where Raku was born. The Yoshimura family has worked with fire in Kyoto since the mid-Meiji era, first as makers of whetstones and crucibles at Higashiyama Matsubara, then, from the postwar years, as makers of Raku tea bowls. The kiln now stands in the city's Minami ward and is in its third generation.

Its standing in the tea world rests on long relationships rather than marketing. The kiln has ties to the Horiuchi family of the Omotesenke school of tea that go back a generation, and its bowls are carried by tea-utensil dealers in Kyoto and Tokyo and by established tea houses in the Kansai region. The kiln's work has been shown in Paris in the Kyō-yaki Kiyomizu-yaki exhibition and at Daimaru and Mitsukoshi. In 2001 the kiln's master became the first potter working in Raku technique to receive Japan's national Traditional Craftsperson certification, and in 2011 the City of Kyoto named him one of its Masters of the Future. He lectures at the Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts. Beyond the tea room, the kiln's Raku glazes have been commissioned as interior tile for a luxury hotel.

Two things define the kiln's method. Forms are pinched up by hand and left with the slight unevenness the hands leave behind. Firing follows hikidashi, the old Raku practice of drawing the bowl from the kiln at full heat so the glaze sets in the open air. The black Raku glaze is ground from stone taken from the Kamo River.
This bowl carries the Rakunyū seal, the kiln's collaborative line: bowls made in the workshop by the master and the artisans he trains, under his direction and to the kiln's standard.

Details & Specifications

• Origin: Kyoto, Japan
• Kiln: Rakunyū kiln (楽入窯)
• Ware: Raku-yaki (Kyoto Raku ware)
• Form / Type: Chawan
• Finish: Aka Raku, red under clear glaze with natural smoke marks 
• Material: Hand-formed earthenware, low-fired

Care

Raku is soft and porous. Soak briefly in warm water before use, rinse with water only after, and let it dry fully before returning it to the box. No detergent, no dishwasher, no microwave. The surface will darken and change with use; this is expected.