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Paper short abstract:

Raku is one of the best known type of Japanese ceramics in the West. Contemporary artists appreciate its technique and aesthetics. Around 1960 it became a symbol of Japaneseness and since then many workshops and collaborative projects have taken place. This paper argues the transculturality of Raku.

Paper long abstract:

Raku is nowadays one of the most popular type of ceramics outside of Japan. Contemporary western artists appreciate technique and aesthetics of this seemingly simple but highly sophisticated genre of ceramics.

The roots of Japanese Raku ware (Raku-yaki 楽焼) can be found in Japanese tea culture of the Momoyama period and the person of a tea master Sen no Rikyū. Until now it has been strongly associated with chadō and the ceramic workshop of the Raku family in Kyōto. The representative of this workshop currently is Raku Kichizemon XVI.

Products from this workshop were treated as unique, and the name Raku 楽was reserved only for products from this workshop. Even family ties between the further family members outside of Kyōto workshop were not enough to set up another workshop, which could produce tea bowls in the same style and under the same name. In Japan, Raku ceramics from workshop in Kyōto is considered something special according to the famous sentence “Raku first, Hagi second, Karatsu third”, indicating the highest rank of Raku among the various types of tea ceramics.

Around 1960 in the USA and later in Europe, Japanese Raku ware became a symbol of Japaneseness associated with Zen Buddhism and Japanese wabi and sabi aesthetics. It attracted and gained great popularity outside of Japan. The ceramists who played an important role in the transmission of knowledge about Japanese ceramics in the West were Paul Soldner and Bernard Leach. Thanks to their admiration for Japanese aesthetics and their technical knowledge, Japanese Raku ceramics became well known outside of Japan. From that moment, the process of assimilation of Raku in the West has begun and its production grew very quickly. Since then many workshops for artists, collaborative projects and workshops for general public were organized. However, what is Western Raku like? Can we still talk about Raku or not? Can we see a collaboration between Japanese and Western artists? This paper will discuss such questions from the perspective of transculturality of Raku ceramics.