Paper short abstract:

The paper presents in Japan commissioned and in Korea produced goshomaru tea bowls as a product of the Momoyama zeitgeist and explores whether their historiography fell victim to the historical narrative of the tea ceremony.

Paper long abstract:

The Momoyama era was one of the most international and innovative times in Japanese art and culture, and the use of imported Korean tea bowls (Jap. kōrai chawan) in the tea cere-mony chanoyu - the most valued social as well as ritual appreciation of art during that time - was well established.

Against this background of internationalism and the craving for things overseas, Ko-rean tea bowls triggered a change in the appreciation of tea utensils in the tea ceremony, and further, as agents of transcultural manifestations, they were highly valued by those in military, political or economic power. In my paper I will deal with goshomaru tea bowls that were commissioned in Japan and made in Korea at the turn of the century - during a time when official connections between the two countries had been cut off. Their design is closely connected to one of the leading figures in the chanoyu of the time, Furuta Oribe (1544-1615), whose name today is used to designate a whole category of pottery, Oribe yaki, which was later mass-produced in Mino kilns, Aichi Prefecture. I will deal with the possible connec-tion between the goshomaru bowls and this innovative tea practitioner to show that they are a result of the Momoyama zeitgeist. The scarce sources on these bowls leave them a mystery that I will approach by looking into the development of the chanoyu during the 16th and 17th century, and its historical narrative that emphasizes the genealogy of tea masters and the categorizing of utensils.