An heirloom 'haikatsugi tenmoku' tea bowl, possibly Chayang kiln, Southern Song - Yuan dynasty, and a mother-of-pearl inlaid black lacquer bowl stand, late Ming dynasty | 南宋至元 或茶洋窰 灰被天目茶盌 及 明末 黑漆嵌螺鈿盞托

A Japanese private collection.

日本私人收藏

The current bowl, with an ash-like silvery glaze draped over its dark stoneware body, belongs to a group of bowls known as haikatsugi tenmoku (ash-covered). Far from what one may infer from the term, however, the iconic iridescent ‘ash-covered’ glaze of such bowls is due to the uneven fires in the kilns. 

Haikatsugi tenmoku bowls are generally attributed to the Chayang kilns in Nanping city, Fujian Province (see Hsieh Ming-Liang, ‘Guanyu huibei chawan’ [On haikatsugi tea bowls], Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art, vol. 454, January 2021, pp. 62-77.) While it has been proposed by some scholars that two different glazes were applied before the firing of these bowls, Hsieh argues that craftsmen merely applied two layers of the same glaze before the firing, with the first application being thinner.

Similar extant pieces of Haikatsugi tenmoku, though remarkably rare, include the ‘Yuhi Tenmoku’ from the Wakashu Sakai family collection, the ‘Niji Tenmoku’ at The Agency for Cultural Affairs, and the ‘Akiba’ preserved at the MOA Museum of Art, Atami, respectively illustrated in Guanyu huibei chawan’ [On haikatsugi tea bowls], nos 5 and 6, as well as Karamono Tenmoku: Tenmoku Excavated from Jian Kiln in Fujian Province and Tenmoku from Japan: Special Exhibition, Tokyo, 1994, cat. no. 23. Compare also a collection of Chayang ware tea bowls preserved at the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, such as one preserved in Japan until 1911 when Charles Lang Freer purchased it from Shinsuke Hayashi before gifting it to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1920, accession no. F1911.355.

此類茶盌胎體厚重青黑，釉面見如落灰般的銀泌色澤，日人對此趨之若鶩，雅稱其曰「灰被天目」，而品質又以本品般多銀者為上。其銀灰釉色秀逸內斂，看似落灰，卻非灰羼而致，實則爲燒造時盌體於匣缽内受火不勻所造成，尤為妙趣。

據謝良明〈關於灰被茶盌〉（《故宮文物月刊》，第454期，2021年1月，頁62-77），學界普遍認同灰被茶盌燒造於今福建省南平市茶洋窰。部分學者認為灰被茶盌由兩種釉料燒造而成，謝不以為然，推測工匠應以相同釉料二次施掛，惟第一層釉較薄。

相類灰被茶盞，可參見數件珍罕傳世例，如酒井家「夕陽」灰被天目、日本文化廳藏益田家「虹」灰被天目、 及靜岡縣熱海市MOA美術館藏「秋葉」灰被天目，分別載於〈關於灰被茶盌〉，出處同上，圖5及6，及《唐物天目：福建省建窰出土天目と日本伝世の天目特别展》，福建省博物館，茶道資料館，1994年，圖版23。另見華盛頓佛利爾美術館藏茶洋窰茶盞數隻，其一存於日本，直到1911年查爾斯・朗・佛利爾從林新助處購得，後於1920年贈予佛利爾美術館，收藏編號 F1911.355。