An Itaya Hazan Tea Bowl Known from an Old Photograph

Tea Bowl with a Dark Rim and Pale Interior

This is an old photograph, in shades of blue-grey. It shows a rounded tea bowl with a thin rim. Outside, the glaze is dark and runs in fine vertical streaks, then lightens towards the foot. Inside, the dark band at the rim fades to a pale, shining centre.

The bowl is attributed to Itaya Hazan (板谷波山, 1872 to 1963). It has been described as dating from 1943, but it is not clear whether that year belongs to the bowl or to the photograph. We have not found a museum record for the bowl, and the Japanese title it was given in an earlier version of this post appears in no source we could find, so we do not use it here.

Where Tenmoku Bowls Came From

The bowl has been described as tenmoku (天目), and its dark, streaked glaze fits that type. Tenmoku bowls go back to Jian ware (建窯), the dark, lustrous black-glazed bowls of China, and they reached Japan with Zen monks returning from China. The bowls were later taken up in tea gatherings.

The Potter

Tokyo National Museum calls Hazan a pioneer of modern Japanese ceramics. For a closer look at his black glazes and his study of Chinese models, see our post on Itaya Hazan's tenmoku tea bowl labelled 1942.

All that survives of this bowl, for us, is a photograph. The pieces we bring to EngiCrafts' bowls and cups can be held and used: wood-fired or matte black, with quiet glazes and forms that vary from one to the next.