Since the end of the Muromachi period when Chinese tea culture and tea tools have flowed into Japan, various teabowls have been produced mainly in Toki City during the Momoyama period, which was a cultural prosperity period. Among them, Tenmoku Teabowl is regarded as the starting point of Japanese tea ceremony culture. A tea person named Sen no Rikyu established the unique Wabi and Sabi aesthetics of Japan with Kuroraku Teabowl, which was commissioned by the pottery artist named Chojiro, and Chojiro introduced the first method of Raku Firing which is universalized worldwide in the future.
The external and decorative features of teabowl produced at this period are as follows. For the shape, the main shapes were cylindrical type and half-cylindrical type, and the width of the foot was narrower than the size of the object, and the height of the foot gradually decreased. The rim of the object has also changed from open style , which is wider than the lower circumference, to a size similar to the lower circumference. Large, irregularly twisted teabowls were also made, they were named ‘Oribe Teabowl’ after the producer Huruta Oribe.
For the decoration, there were patterns and pictures that were not seen in the early days. Shino Glaze was first used, and various glazes such as Beni Shino Glaze, Nezumi Shino Glaze and Aka Shino Glaze were produced according to color and characteristics. Oribe Teabowl, which borrowed China s green, was first produced in the Momoyama period. The pattern of Oribe Teabowl was influenced by objects and kimono patterns that were popular at that time, such as grapes, plants, and geometrical patterns.
This study analyzed and described the origin of Japanese tea ceremony culture and teabowls and the characteristics and changes of teabowls made during the limited period of Momoyama. It is also academically significant that the unique form of the Japanese name ‘Gomijima teabowl’ produced in Joseon influenced the form of ‘Kisseto teabowl’, the beginning of ‘Mino teabowl’. Through this study, we can see that teabowls as a tea tool were made in various forms and colors, and also contained aesthetic meanings. This is a characteristic element of the Momoyama era , in which new cultures are introduced into Japan and are surrounded by social and economic changes.