Tea bowl - chawan

Japanese: 茶碗 - ちゃわん

A ceramic bowl for drinking tea. Before the early modern period, porcelain was collectively called chawan (for example, a porcelain vase was called a "tea bowl vase"), and even after the early modern period, it is sometimes used to refer to vessels that have purposes other than drinking tea, such as "rice bowls." Even with original chawan, there are cases where they were made for that purpose from the beginning and cases where they were later considered to be chawan, such as the Goryeo chawan, a typical tea bowl for drinking matcha.

China is one of the countries with the oldest custom of drinking tea, and it seems that tea was already present in the Three Kingdoms period (3rd century), but tea bowls made of white porcelain or celadon were not confirmed until the middle of the Tang Dynasty (8th century), and in Japan, tea bowls (synonymous with tea bowls) appeared in documents in the early Heian period (9th century), with Chinese celadon and domestic green-glazed and ash-glazed pottery being used as tea bowls. Later, in China during the Five Dynasties period (10th century), black-glazed porcelain (called Tenmoku in Japan) was considered suitable pottery for tea bowls, and Jianzhan pottery fired at the Jian kiln built in Fujian Province became all the rage, and under its influence, black-glazed tea bowls were also fired at the Jizhou kiln in Jiangxi Province and the Cizhou kiln in North China. Furthermore, the two great white porcelain kilns of Ding in Hebei Province and Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province produced thin white porcelain tea bowls that appear to have been made with practicality rather than aesthetic appeal at the same time. In the Korean Peninsula, which adopted Chinese customs, tea drinking became popular during the Goryeo period (10th to 14th centuries) and celadon tea bowls were produced (in Japan, tea bowls made in the Korean Peninsula are called Karamono), but there is no evidence that the popular Tenmoku tea bowls were copied. Tea bowl production in Vietnam (the so-called Shimamono) is thought to have begun in the 12th to 13th centuries, but its actual circumstances are still unclear.

In Japan, drinking tea, which was briefly practiced in the early Heian period, was rediscovered in the late Heian period (early 12th century), and Jianzhan from Jian kilns was highly valued in response to the trend in China. Then, in the late Kamakura period (early 14th century), the custom of drinking tea became extremely popular, and Tenmoku tea bowls such as Jianzhan, Taihizhan, Yohen, Yuteki, Usan, and Bessan were imported and dominated the Chinese wares. At the same time, Seto ware also began to make copies of these types of Tenmoku tea bowls. Towards the end of the Muromachi period (16th century), the idea of wabi tea brought about a major shift in the value of tea bowls, and Tenmoku tea bowls from unknown Chinese kilns (Haikatsugi Tenmoku is a representative example) became popular. Bowls that were not originally tea bowls, such as tea bowls from the Jizhou kiln (so-called e-Koryo), Goryeo tea bowls from the Yi Dynasty on the Korean Peninsula (Mishima, Katade, Kohiki, Ido, Totoya, Kumakawa, etc.), and Vietnamese blue and white and red-painted tea bowls, were seen as tea bowls as they conformed to the wabi aesthetic. And among domestically produced items, there are famous glazed bowls such as Raku tea bowls by Chojiro (Kyoto Prefecture), Mino ware (Gifu Prefecture), Karatsu ware (Saga Prefecture), Takatori ware (Fukuoka Prefecture), and Agano ware (Fukuoka Prefecture), and there are also excellent products in Kiseto, Setoguro, Shino, etc. In the early Edo period, Kyoto potter Ninsei perfected tea bowls that met the standard of "beautiful rust" using color painting techniques.

The sencha method became mainstream in China during the Ming dynasty (14th to 17th centuries), and sencha tea bowls began to be fired at Yixing kilns in Jiangsu Province and elsewhere, but no outstanding artistic masterpieces remain. In Japan, the Chinese-style sencha method became popular in the mid-Edo period (18th century) as a result of literati tastes, and in the late Edo period (19th century), Kyoto potters such as Aoki Mokubei produced attractive small sencha tea bowls.

The custom of drinking black tea was also brought to Japan from the West. Teacups for this purpose were mass-produced for export after the Meiji Restoration, and especially after World War II, they were mass-produced for both domestic and export use, but there are no works of art in particular.

[Yoshiaki Yabe]

For meals

Originally, as the name suggests, tea bowls were used for green tea or matcha, but it was towards the end of the Edo period that ceramic bowls began to be commonly used to hold rice or porridge. Until then, wooden bowls had long been used for rice, and this was considered normal. In other words, it is relatively recent that ceramic bowls have become the norm as they are today. The color, shape, weight, ease of holding, and other factors of a tea bowl affect the taste of the rice, so careful consideration is required when choosing one.

[Tomomi Kono]

"Tea Bowls: First Raku, Second Hagi, Third Karatsu" edited by Hayashiya Seizo (1983, Tankosha) " ▽ "Tea Bowls" by Mitsuoka Tadanari, Kuroda Ryoji and others (1977, Sekai Bunkasha)

[Reference] | Bowl

Names of the various parts of a tea bowl
©Katsuya Nishikawa ">

Names of the various parts of a tea bowl

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

茶を喫するための陶磁器の碗。近世以前には磁器を総称して茶碗とよぶ（たとえば磁製の花瓶(かへい)を「茶碗の花瓶」という）例もあり、近世以降でも「飯茶碗」のように喫茶以外の目的をもつ器をよぶ場合もある。また本来の茶碗でも、当初からその目的でつくられる場合と、抹茶用の代表的な茶碗である高麗(こうらい)茶碗のように、のちに茶碗に見立てられる場合がある。

　飲茶の風習のもっとも古い国の一つとされる中国では、三国時代（3世紀）にはすでに茶の存在が認められるようであるが、白磁や青磁製の茶碗が確認されるのは唐代中期（8世紀）であり、日本でも平安前期（9世紀）には茶垸(わん)（茶碗と同義）が文献に登場し、中国の青磁や国産の緑釉(ゆう)・灰釉陶が茶碗として使われている。その後、中国では五代（10世紀）になると黒釉磁（日本ではこれを天目(てんもく)とよんだ）が茶碗にふさわしい焼物とされ、福建省に築かれた建窯(けんよう)で焼かれる建盞(けんさん)が一世を風靡(ふうび)して、その影響下に江西省の吉州(きっしゅう)窯、華北省の磁州窯でも黒釉の茶碗を焼造した。また河北省の定(てい)窯、江西省の景徳鎮(けいとくちん)窯という二大白磁名窯では、同じころ趣味性よりも実用性を重んじたと思われる薄造りの白磁茶碗を産している。中国の風習を受けた朝鮮半島では、高麗時代（10～14世紀）に喫茶が流行して青磁の茶碗がつくられた（わが国では茶碗に限って朝鮮半島の作も唐物(からもの)とよぶ）が、人気の天目茶碗は写された形跡がない。ベトナム（いわゆる島物(しまもの)）での茶碗焼造は12～13世紀に開始されたと考えられるが、その実体はまだ判然としていない。

　日本では、平安前期に一時行われた喫茶が平安末期（12世紀初頭）に再認識されるに及び、中国の時流を受けて建窯の建盞が大いに珍重された。そして鎌倉後期（14世紀初頭）に喫茶の風習が爆発的流行をみると、こぞって建盞や玳皮(たいひ)盞、曜変(ようへん)、油滴(ゆてき)、烏盞(うさん)、鼈盞(べっさん)などの天目が輸入されて唐物の王座を占めた。同時に、瀬戸焼でもこの種の天目茶碗の倣製を始めている。室町末期（16世紀）になるとわび茶の思想が茶碗の価値観を大転換させ、中国製では無名窯の天目茶碗（灰被(はいかつぎ)天目はその代表例）が人気を博し、磁州窯の茶碗（いわゆる絵高麗）や朝鮮半島の李朝(りちょう)の高麗茶碗（三島(みしま)、堅手(かたで)、粉引(こひき)、井戸(いど)、斗々屋(ととや)、熊川(こもがい)など）、ベトナムの染付や赤絵の茶碗など、本来は茶碗でなかった碗が、わびの美意識にかなうものとして茶碗に見立てられた。そして国産では長次郎の楽(らく)茶碗（京都府）をはじめ美濃(みの)焼（岐阜県）、唐津焼（佐賀県）、高取焼（福岡県）、上野(あがの)焼（福岡県）などが施釉の名碗を焼き、黄瀬戸、瀬戸黒、志野などにも優品がある。江戸初期には京都の陶工仁清(にんせい)が色絵技法をもって「綺麗(きれい)さび」にかなう茶碗を完成させた。

　煎茶(せんちゃ)の法は中国では明(みん)代（14～17世紀）になって主流を占め、江蘇(こうそ)省の宜興(ぎこう)窯などで煎茶茶碗が焼かれ始めているが、美術的に傑出する名作は残されていない。日本では江戸中期（18世紀）に文人趣味のもとに中国風煎茶法が流行し始め、江戸後期（19世紀）には青木木米(もくべい)に代表される京都の陶工が魅力的な小さな煎茶茶碗を製作している。

　また日本に紅茶の飲法が欧米からもたらされた。そのための茶碗（カップ）が輸出用に量産されるのは明治維新以降であり、とくに第二次世界大戦後は国内用・輸出用を含めて大量生産されているが、美術品としてみるべきものはとくにない。

［矢部良明］

食事用

もともとは名前のように、煎茶あるいは抹茶用であったのが、陶磁器の茶碗が米飯あるいは粥(かゆ)などを入れる食器として一般に使われだしたのは江戸時代末期である。それまでは古くから木椀(もくわん)が米飯用として使われてきて、これが当然と考えられていた。つまり現在のように陶磁器製のものが通常の茶碗となったのは比較的新しい。茶碗は、色、形、重さ、持ちやすさなどで、飯の味に影響を与えるから、選択には吟味が必要である。

［河野友美］

『林屋晴三監修『茶碗　一楽二萩三唐津』（1983・淡交社）』▽『満岡忠成・黒田領治他著『茶碗』（1977・世界文化社）』

[参照項目] | 椀

茶碗の各部名称

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例

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