A 'Jian' russet-streaked 'nogime tenmoku' bowl, Southern Song dynasty | 南宋 建窰兔毫釉天目茶盞

Hirano Kotoken, Tokyo.

來源

平野古陶軒，東京

Considered by the Song Emperor Huizong (r. 1101-25) to be one of the most desirable tea wares, Jian bowls with hare’s fur streaks were held in great esteem not only in China but also in Japan. The dark and dynamically speckled interiors create an attractive contrast with the fine white foam of whisked tea. Bowls produced by the Jian kilns of Fujian province were most likely already brought to Japan in the Kamakura period (1185-1333), when Japanese monks discovered the art of ritual tea preparation at Buddhist temples in southern China.

See similar bowls of this type, including one preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (accession no. 故-瓷-008624); and three other examples now in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession nos 29.100.230 , 29.100.227, 17.179.2), the first, recently included in the Museum’s exhibition Kyoto: Capital of Artistic Imagination, New York, 2020, the second illustrated in Denise Patry Leidy, How to Read Chinese Ceramics, New York, 2015, pl. 15.