Raku Ware

raku ware, Japanese hand-molded lead-glazed earthenware, originally invented in 16th-century Kyōto by the potter Chōjirō, who was commissioned by Zen tea master Sen Rikyū to design wares expressly for the tea ceremony. Quite distinct from wares that preceded it, raku represents an attempt to arrive at a new kind of beauty by deliberate repudiation of existing forms. The shape of the vessels is extremely simple: a wide, straight-sided bowl set on a narrow base. Because raku wares are molded entirely by hand rather than thrown on a wheel, each piece clearly expresses the individuality of the maker’s hand, and pieces tend to be unique creations. The glaze colours include dark brown, light orange-red, straw colour, green, and cream.

raku ware: tea bowl

The most unusual feature of raku is its technique: instead of warming and maturing the pottery in a cold kiln, glazed ware is placed in a hot kiln for only about one hour and then removed and forced to cool rapidly at air temperature. The process subjects the pottery to extreme stress and creates unique effects throughout the glaze and, sometimes, in the pottery itself. Reduction firing, in which the hot pottery is placed in a flammable substance to deprive the surface of oxygen, increases the chance aspects and dramatic surface variation of the glaze. Chance and process are the key elements of the raku aesthetic.