Masterworks of Japanese Tea Tradition: Part 1

Raised from the Ashes: The Tsukumo nasu Tea Caddy

Thursday, September 10, 7 pm
online via Zoom (with recordings available for limited time following live sessions)

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The first session of our series will trace the miraculous stories of the survival and transmission of a small palm-sized ceramic jar made in China that would become one of the most famed and coveted objects owned by generations of Japan's most powerful feudal lords. The evolution of this piece and those like it and how they were used as tea containers will serve as the introduction to our exploration of wabi as one of the defining aesthetics of Japanese tea culture and even of Japanese artistic taste as a whole.

Historically classified as an "Ōmeibutsu" (Great Famous Object), the tea caddy known as "Tsukumo nasu" dates to 13th-14th century Southern Song or Yuan-dynasty China. It is currently in the collection of the Seikado Bunko Art Museum in Tokyo.