Chawan facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Chawan
Chawan with hare's fur glaze in mottled black, Jian ware, from Jianyang in Song China
Chinese name
Chinese	茶碗
Literal meaning	"tea bowl"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin cháwǎn Middle Chinese Middle Chinese /ɖˠa.ʔuɑnX/ Old Chinese Zhengzhang /*rlaː.qoːnʔ/
Alternate Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	茶盞
Simplified Chinese	茶盏
Literal meaning	"tea cup"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin cházhăn Wade–Giles ch'a2chan3
Korean name
Hangul	찻사발, 다완
Hanja	n/a, 茶碗
Literal meaning	"tea bowl"
Transcriptions Revised Romanization cha-sabal, dawan McCune–Reischauer ch'a-sabal, tawan
Japanese name
Kanji	茶碗
Kana	ちゃわん
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn chawan

A chawan (茶碗; literally "tea bowl") is a bowl used for preparing and drinking tea. Many types of chawan are used in East Asian tea ceremonies. The choice of their use depends upon many considerations.

History

A chawan with an oil spot glaze, Jian ware, from Song China

The chawan originated in China. The earliest chawan in Japan were imported from China between the 13th and the 16th centuries.

The Jian chawan, a Chinese tea bowl known as Tenmoku chawan in Japan, was the preferred tea bowl for the Japanese tea ceremony until the 16th century. In Japan, tea was also mainly drunk from this Chinese variety of tea bowls until about the 15th century. The Japanese term tenmoku is derived from the name of the Tianmu Mountain, where Japanese priests acquired these tea bowls from Chinese temples to bring back to Japan, according to tradition.

An 11th-century resident of Fujian wrote about the Jian tea wares:

Tea is of light colour and looks best in black cups. The cups made at Jianyang are bluish-black in colour, marked like the fur of a hare. Being of rather thick fabric, they retain the heat, so that when once warmed through, they cool very slowly, and they are additionally valued on this account. None of the cups produced at other places can rival these. Blue and white cups are not used by those who give tea-tasting parties.

By the end of the Kamakura period (1185–1333), as the custom of tea drinking spread throughout Japan and the Tenmoku chawan became desired by all ranks of society, the Japanese began to make their own copies in Seto (in present-day Aichi Prefecture). Although the Tenmoku chawan was derived from the original Chinese that came in various colors, shapes, and designs, the Japanese particularly liked the bowls with a tapered shape, so most Seto-made Tenmoku chawan had this shape.

With the rise of the wabi tea ceremony in the late Muromachi period (1336–1573), the Ido chawan, a variety of Korean bowls mainly used for rice in Korea, also became highly prized in Japan. Korean bowls were a favourite of tea master Sen no Rikyū because of their rough simplicity.

Over time and with the development of the Japanese tea ceremony as a distinct form, local ceramics became more highly priced and developed. Around the Edo period, the chawan was often made in Japan. The most esteemed pieces for a tea ceremony chawan are raku ware, Hagi ware, and Karatsu ware. A saying in the tea ceremony schools for the preferred types of chawan relates: "Raku first, Hagi second, Karatsu third."

Another chawan type that became slightly popular during the Edo period from abroad was the Annan ware from Vietnam (Annam), which were originally used there as rice bowls. Annan ware is blue and white, with a high foot.

Usage

A cloth called chakin is used to wipe the bowl clean.

Types

Japanese chawan have various shapes and types, many of which have specific names:

• "iron" bowl (鉄鉢形, tetsubachi-nari / teppatsu-nari)
• "wooden" bowl (椀形, wan-nari)
• Goki (呉記型, Goki-gata)
• half-cylinder (半筒型, han tsutsu-gata)
• cylinder (筒型, tsutsu-gata)
• go stone box (碁笥底型, gokezoko-gata)
• waist (胴締, dojimari-gata)
• rider's cup (馬上杯 / 馬上盃, bajyohai)
• cedar (杉形, sugi-nari)
• ido / well (井戸型, ido-gata)
• Tenmoku (天目型, Tenmoku-gata)
• Komogai (熊川形, Komogai-nari) – formerly imported from the Korean port of Komogai/Ungcheon [ko] (now part of Jinhae)
• Silver tenmoku (銀天目茶碗, silver tea bowl made in the tenmoku style)
• curving lip (端反り型, hatazori-gata)
• flat (平形, hiragata)
• horse bucket (馬盥, badarai)
• clog/shoe (沓形, kutsu-gata)
• shoreline (砂浜形, suhama-gata)
• peach (桃形, momo-gata)
• brush washer (筆洗形, hissen-gata)
• straw hat (編笠, amikasa)
• triangular (三角形, sankaku-gata)
• four-sided (四方形, shiho-gata)

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  White raku teabowl Fuji-san (Mount Fuji) by Honami Kōetsu, Edo period, 17th century National Treasure

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  Hagi ware bowl

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  Black raku bowl used for thick tea, Azuchi-Momoyama period, 16th century

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  Shino ware tea bowl