'Tales of a Tea Jar: Chinese Ceramics
and Tea in Japan'
Given
by Louise Cort
______
Sponsored by
The Sir
Percival David Foundation Trust
A remarkable story of
luck brought a standard Chinese storage jar into the realm of tea culture (chanoyu) in Japan. While the jar played
a practical role for storage of tea, it was also drawn into the system of
connoisseurship that developed in the context of chanoyu. It was deemed worthy of a personal name, Chigusa, and provided with luxurious
silk accessories. Sixteenth-century diaries of tea events describe its
appearance in detail. Chigusa’s story
provides a focal point for considering the shifting role of Chinese ceramics in
chanoyu, especially in the era before
kilns in Japan began producing tea ceramics.
WHEN? Monday 11 May 2015
TIME? Lecture: 18.00 Reception: 17.30
WHERE? Bonhams, 101 New Bond Street,
London W1S 1SR
ADMISSION? Free
To reserve a seat in
advance please contact:
Christine Mitch
T: (+44) (0)207 468 824
E:
christine.mitchell@bonhams.com
Louise Cort is Curator for Ceramics at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur
M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.
Her interests include historical and contemporary ceramics in Japan,
Southeast Asia, and South Asia, and the Japanese arts of tea (chanoyu).
She is the author of:
Shigaraki, Potters’ Valley (1979, 2000)
Ceramics
in Mainland Southeast Asia
Collections in the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur
M. Sackler Gallery (online catalogue with George Ashley Williams IV and
David P. Rehfuss, 2008)
Temple Potters
of Puri (2012)
Chigusa and the Art
of Tea (with
Andrew M. Watsky, 2014)
 |
| Tea-leaf storage jar named Chigusa China, probably Guangdong Province Southern Song or Yuan dynasty, mid-13th–mid-14th century Stoneware with iron glaze 41.6 cm (h) FSC-P-6964.1 |
