Black Raku ware tea bowl named Minogame (Mossy-tailed tortoise)

Hon'ami Koetsu was a sword polisher and appaiser by profession, but he gained fame as a calligrapher and also as a maker of tea bowls that were much admired and replicated. Surviving letters show that Koetsu collaborated for making tea bowls with the Raku workshop of professional potters in Kyoto: using clay supplied by the workshop, Koetsu sculpted bowl forms by hand and returned them to the workshop for glazing and firing.

The black glaze on this cylindrical bowl with blunt-cut rim was scraped away to create a feeling of dignified age and wear. The slightly underfired glaze has a green tinge and matte surface. In shape and glazing, this bowl closely resembles several other Black Raku tea bowls thought to have been made by Koetsu. If not from Koetsu's own hand, this bowl is probably a faithful copy by a professional potter. The bowl's name Minogame (Mossy-Tailed Tortoise) is recorded on the bowl's storage box, which was inscribed by Rokurokusai (1837-1910), eleventh head of the Omote Senke school of tea.

Credit: Gift of Charles Lang Freer