Tea Bowl (1700s): Art, History and Details

Tea Bowl (1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This type of wide-mouthed bowl was used every day in Korea, not exclusively for tea drinking. But when it was introduced to Japan around the early 1500s, its imperfect appearance, which evokes the aesthetics of wabi-sabi, caused it to be repurposed as a tea bowl. Korean tea bowls were circulated as a item of foreign luxury among Japanese military elites. Possibly produced in one of the kilns established by the trading office (Waegwan) in Busan, southern Gyeongsang province, this type of tea bowl was sold to Japanese tea bowl collectors. According to a historical record dated to 1641, one trading boat shipped more than 14,000 tea bowls to Japan.

Object facts

• Title: Tea Bowl
• Date: 1700s
• Culture: Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: stoneware with white slip and overglaze
• Dimensions: Overall: 8.1 cm (3 3/16 in.); Diameter of base: 5.5 cm (2 3/16 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1991.106

A detail from the museum

This type of rustic-looking tea bowl was produced in one of the kilns established by the trading office (Waegwan) in Busan, southern Gyeongsang province, for Japanese tea bowl collectors who admired the beauty of imperfection.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Jeong, Dong-ju. From Joseon Rice Bowl to Yido Tea Bowl [조선 막사발과 이도다완]. Paju: Hangil ateu, 2012.
• Hur, Nam-lin. “Korean Tea Bowls (Kōrai Chawan) and Japanese Wabicha: A Story of Acculturation in Premodern Northeast Asia.” Korean Studies 39 (2015): 1–22.
• Kang, Mu-Chang. "A Study on the Characteristics of Japanese Made-to-Order Ceramics and the Transition Process of Busan Waegwanyo Kiln - With a focus on Commissioned Tea Bowls [일본 주문 도자기의 특징과 부산 왜관요 변천과정에 관한 연구 - 주문다완(御本茶碗)을 중심으로]." Hankuk dojahak yeongu 17, no. 3 (2020): 5–19.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.