KEK News Vol.7 No.1(People)

Continuing the discontinuation a story of a special earthenware, Raku

      The whole thing started by the meeting between Rikyu SEN (1522-1591) and Chojiro RAKU (?- 1590) some 400 years ago. Rikyu, the most famous man of sophistication of the time, wanted to perfect his art of tea. He needed to make the 4-dimensional time and space for his tea ceremony to be the ultimate one when outside world was quite messy with repeated wars.

      To get the maximum pleasure of drinking a cup of tea, he wanted a mental state free from everything else, such as social status, snobbism, haughtiness, boasting that would mar his tea ceremony (tea party, in fact). He not only requested humbleness regardless of participant's social statue, he also pursued his equipment for his tea ceremony to appear humble and simple. Rikyu wanted a tea bowl that does not brag about its own beauty, its high price, and so forth. Rikyu contradicts himself by requesting that the bowl to be of ultimate sophistication which could possibly be produced only by great artists. Chojiro, in response to Rikyu, produced quite a few tea bowls that fulfilled Rikyu's impossible request. His 'Chawan' (tea bowl) is a miracle, as it appears to be un-conspicious, un-insisting, just like a stone on the roadside, but when you really take a close look at it, one is totally astonished by its perfection and beauty.

      Since then, the Raku family has been producing the Chawans with this spirit for the last 400 years over 15 generations. Their tea bowls are called "Rakujyawan". I am sure that successors to Chojiro had to face grave difficulties in doing the family business, since the first generation, Chojiro, had perfected the 'art of the contradiction'. It is interesting to realize that no one in theRaku family left a recipe describing the art of Raku-ware including how to mix the graze. Each successor must come up with his graze mixture, shape and so forth on his own. Each generation must reinvent his art. The art of Raku-ware has been kept alive and appreciated under this unbearable burden on each generation of the Raku family. No successors to Chojiro reproduced tea bowls identical to the Chojiro's. Just imagine to be a physicist studying under a super physicist who had solved all conceivable problems in physics of the time. "What can I do?" would have been the question each generation of the Raku family must have asked. As this is a soul searching process, Rakuchawans created by each Raku generation reflected the mental state of the era. During the war-laden era of Chojiro, tranquility was the most sought after, and his Rakuchawan expressed tranquility. Getting into Edo era when peace is assured, Rakuchawan expressed calmness with a bit of subtle delight. Getting into the computer era, Rakuchawan, created by present Mr. Kichizaemon XV, expresses warm human joy although very subtle. I would say that the great DNA of Chojiro is alive and kicking. What are common to the creations of each generation are: the temperature to fire is relatively low (around 1200 deg.C) to keep porous texture that makes its low thermal conductivity. It is very comfortable to hold the Rakuchawan with hot tea inside. Rakuwares are made solely by hands without using a wheel which enables to create the shape not obtainable through using a wheel. The shape and texture demonstrate human warmth. When you hold the Chawan, you feel like you are hugging someone.

      Each generation received their own fame through their own effort. Present generation, Mr. Kichizaemon Raku, XV, is of no exception. He studied at Academia Romana for two years, received a visiting fellowship from Princeton University, organized art exhibitions all over the world, including England, Belgium,

Italy, France and Holland, have received numerous awards. At his age of 54, he is very active in developing the art of the family tradition, including teaching and writing in addition to his creating Raku-wares in his own style. He received the Minister prize awarded by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry for his recent book "Raku: Kakunyu XIV and Kichizaemon XV". It is a book I was deeply moved. (Unfortunately, no translation of the book is available at the moment.) He is multi-talented.

It should be noted that the popular "RAKU" well known in the world is a spin off of this family creations. "RAKU" technique of low temperature firing, subtleness and so forth has been used by many ceramists having been moved by seeing the original Rakuware, but they are not quite the same things. They do not inherit the difficulties that Raku family have been facing. (T.K.O.)