Description

This type of wide-mouthed bowl was used everyday in Korea, not exclusively for tea drinking. But when it was introduced to Japan around the early 16th century, its imperfect appearance evoking the aesthetics of wabi-sabi caused it to be repurposed as a tea bowl. Korean tea bowls were circulated as an item of foreign luxury among Japanese military elites. Many Korean potters were abducted to Japan during the Japanese invasions (1592-98) and some settled down in Japan, particularly in the Saga prefecture in Kyushu. A Japanese tea bowl such as 1983.158 in the CMA collection is one example possibly created by the descendants of abducted Korean potters.