Event
New Year Exhibition: Selected Works by Raku Generations INTIMATE FORM
Jan 5, 2016(tue) – Mar 6, 2016(sun)
Hours: 10：00 ~ 16：30（entry up to 30 minutes before closing.）
Closed: Monday (Open: if the Monday is a national holiday)
Admission:
Adults ¥900
Student Concessions: university ¥700 high school ¥400
Under junior high free admission
http://www.raku-yaki.or.jp/e/museum/exhibition/index.html
Venue
Raku Museum
http://www.raku-yaki.or.jp/e/
Access: 84 Aburanokôji Nakadachi-uri agaru, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto,
602-0923, Japan
Tel: 075-414-0304
Hours: 10：00 ~ 16：30
（entry up to 30 minutes before closing.）
Closed: Monday (Open: if the Monday is a national holiday)
Description
Almost 450 years have passed since Chôjirô originated Raku teabowl inspired by Sen Rikyû’s tea philosophy. In those days, Raku teabowl was called ‘Ima-yaki’, ‘Now-ware’. One of the most significant characteristics of Raku ware is that it is exclusively hand-built, the technique specifically known as tezukune. The form is born out of a pinching process where a lump of clay is gradually pinched up into a bowl shape to fit the cupped hands. The finished form reflects the movement of hands, sometimes dynamic sometimes soft and gentle, but is always endowed with artless simplicity.
In the course of establishing wabicha, the wabi tea aesthetics, Rikyû perhaps saw the essential finding in hand-built form of Raku teabowl that strongly mirrors the mind and spirit of the artist who is manually involved in the making process as well as its user who eventually handles it.
This exhibition highlights the intimate nature of hand-built form of Raku teabowls, with the exhibits including such representative works as a black Raku teabowl named Mozuya by Raku Chôjirô I, a red Raku teabowl named Sôjô by Raku Dônyû III, a red Raku teabowl named Rika by the current Raku head Kichizaemon XV to name a few, thus unraveling the expressive core of Raku wares made possible and enhanced by hand-forming, occasionally dynamically charged with powerful force hidden behind gentle aspect.
