An heirloom 'haikatsugi tenmoku' tea bowl, Southern Song - Yuan dynasty | 南宋至元　灰被天目茶盌　配　烏漆盞托

Collection of Kobori Enshu (1579-1647).

Collection of the Maeda family, Kaga, Ishikawa.

Auction of the Maeda Family Collection, Kanazawa, 1869.

Matsuoka Tadayoshi (b. 1887), Kanazawa.

Watanabe & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Shika Meisai: Ise Korekushon no Meito / Imperial Colors: Peerless Chinese Porcelains from the Ise Collection, Gotoh Museum, Tokyo, 2015, cat. no. 2-14.

Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2017, cat. no. 18.

Ise Korekushon Sekai wo Miryoshita Chugokutoji / The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2017, cat. no. 24.

Yoshio Takahashi, Taisho Meiki-Kan [Taisho Catalogue of Prized Tea Utensils], vol. 6, Tokyo, 1925, p. 61.

Nagomi [A Monthly Magazine by Tankosha], Tankosha, Tokyo, May 2018, p. 27.

Christian Boehm, 'A Tea Master's Vision: Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection', Arts of Asia, July-August 2018, fig. 11.

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.

來源

小堀遠州（1579-1647年）收藏

前田家收藏，加賀市，石川縣

前田家收藏拍賣，金澤市，1869年

松岡忠良（1887年生）， 金澤市

渡邊三方堂，東京

展覽

《瓷華明彩―イセコレクションの名陶》，五島美術館，東京，2015年，編號2-14

《Porcelaine. Chefs-d'œuvre de la Collection Ise》，吉美博物館，巴黎，2017年，編號18

《イセコレクション―世界を魅了した中国陶磁》，大阪市立東洋陶瓷美術館，大阪，2017年，編號24

出版

高橋義雄，《大正名器鑑》，卷6，東京，1925年，頁61

《なごみ》，淡交社，東京，2018年5月，頁27

Christian Boehm，〈A Tea Master's Vision: Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection〉，《亞洲藝術》，2018年7/8月，圖11

此類茶盌胎體厚重青黑，釉面見如落灰般的銀泌色澤，日本人對此趨之若鶩，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。