Researches On Inaba Tenmoku Type Tea Bowls

The Inaba Tenmoku tea bowl presently held in collections at the Seikado Bunko Art Museum,Japan,is an exquisite piece.Fired during China’s Southern Song dynasty at the Jian kiln site,it is the oldest and most beautiful intact specimen of Tenmoku type tea bowl in existence today,and has since been designated a national treasure by the Japanese authorities.Due to the relative remoteness of the Japanese repository in which it is held,and given also to the fact that for most of the time it is not publicly exhibited,only a select few individuals have ever conducted in-depth research on the piece.Following on from the emergence in the late C20 th of Japanese scholarly researches on the bowl,an ever increasing number of others have since also made contributions,attempting to further understand,even to revive the methods of its production,and with already considerable success.Taking the naming,origins and aesthetic qualities of the aforementioned Inaba Tenmoku tea bowl as its point of departure,combined with the advantages native to the author’s own specialist background,the present dissertation engages in a number of analyses,along with discussions of contemporary reproductive techniques and other topics,to attempt to express more fully the boundless allure of this particular tea bowl.