been excelled in gorgeousness of colour and decoration, was fascinated by the teachings of cha do. He became an ardent student of cha no yu and his enthusiasm spread to his generals and retainers. The shortest way to his favour was to present him with something that could be used for the performance of cha no yu, so his followers vied with one another in making things of pottery that would meet with his approval. All of Japan was swept with a mania for "cha ki," pottery utensils suitable for cha no yu. Feudal lords, given their choice between the grant of large tracts of land and a famous piece of pottery, eagerly chose the pottery.
In the estimation of the Japanese the most important pottery for cha no yu is first, the cha ire (tea jars), next the cha wan (tea cups). Under the Tokugawa Shogunate the most precious possessions of the military men were said to be tea jars, specimens of calligraphy and swords, in the order named. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was the first to reward services rendered him by his followers with pottery articles to be used in cha no yu. Tokugawa Iyeyasu and his successors were only too pleased to follow this precedent. Such a high value was set upon these intrinsically valueless things that it became the custom that a cha ire (tea jar) was granted only for the lifetime of the recipient and must be returned on his death. Sometimes the heir was granted the honour of inheriting it.
Pottery articles used in cha no yu. Left to right; deep raku yaki tea bowl for use in winter; shallow Kyoto yaki bowl for summer; brown tea jar cha ire and fan-shaped Kyoto yaki box for holding incense; green porcelain, seiji mono stand for holding the top of the hot water kettle and Shiragiya yaki mizu sashi or cold water vessel.
All this, of course, proved a great incentive to the development of the potter's art and it is an influence still active today for, although the craze for pottery tea things (cha ki) created a situation where fabulous sums were paid for intrinsically valueless things much as did the Black Tulip craze which swept Holland at this same time, in Japan these things continue to bring a high price and are handed down from father to son as heirlooms. The practice of cha no yu continues to occupy the attention of many Japanese of all classes; poor indeed is the family with no knowledge of it. Although it was developed by priests and feudal lords and its best teachers always have been and still are men, it was a part of the education of all ladies of good family. During the peaceful and leisurely times of the Tokugawa Shogunate women began to take an active interest in it and until the Second World War cast its menacing shadow before it and altered the pattern of Japanese life, no young girl's education was complete without one to three year's instruction in its complicated ritual. In girls' schools it was part of extra-curriculum activities and for those girls forced to work in factories or large offices free instruction was provided, often during working hours. Hotels, restaurants and department stores provided teachers for their female help without charge. All men with any pretensions to culture can at least talk intelligently about the subject and many are well versed in the intricacies of its practice. Until the war the sign-manual of a man's material success in life was the construction of at least one room, if not a small detached building in his garden, dedicated to the rites of cha no yu.
Books have been written and will continue to be written on this fascinating subject, but for the purpose of this book we are concerned only with its effect on the ceramic art of Japan. The present-day cha no yu with its inflexible rules and unalterable ritual is not the cha no yu of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. When Japanese ceramics blossomed into perfection in those days the cha jin were the seekers of the new; their ideal was the entertainment of their guests and for this purpose they sought new and different objects and prided themselves on finding beauty in unexpected places. To be able to point out to their guests new and hidden beauty in commonplace things, to delight their eyes; and to be able to relate an interesting story of the finding or making of such a thing to delight their minds, was the endeavour of the early cha jin. It is an essentially Japanese trait to scorn the obvious, the easily understood beauty of a perfect thing and to prefer the subtile pleasure that comes of the finding of aesthetic beauty in imperfection, or in a thing not beautiful in itself but because it fulfilled the purpose for which it was made or because it has answered the need of man for many long years. One of the teachings of cha no yu is to use what is nearest at hand. Theoretically, cha no yu requires only that one clean and prepare the room, put a flower in a vase in the tokonoma (the recessed alcove of every Japanese guest room), boil water and serve one's guests a cup of tea, actually cha no yu enthusiasts spend all their time trying to think of unusual refinements and variations of the accepted routine, and sooner or later they all try their hand at producing a tea cup (cha wan) which they consider answers all aesthetic requirements. This led to the development of a type of pottery which is peculiarly and uniquely Japanese, known as raku ydki.
Although we have said that cha no yu consists only of serving one's friends a cup of tea, and this in theory is all it is, in practice it is far more complicated. The tea used is a specially prepared powdered tea. It is made by pouring half a cupful of hot (never boiling) water on a small amount of the tea powder in the bowl or cup from which it is to be drunk. It looks, and to many Westerners tastes, like spinach soup. It is never served casually, but always in a suitable bowl, very ceremoniously, and in a room set aside for that purpose only. Of late years attempts have been made to adapt cha no yu to European style surroundings, but with slight success. For the enjoyment of this tea its traditional surroundings are necessary. The room should be small, usually only nine foot square, and a garden is mandatory. No paint or artificial colour is used, only the natural colour of wood planed to a satin finish and the golden tan of the reed mats (tatami) on the floor.
Typical cha wan, tea bowls. On the left; red raku yaki, soft thick pottery glazed with a thick orangered glaze and showing the irregular edge so much admired by cha jin. On the right; shallow wide bowl of Seto yaki, with a semi-transparent greenish-yellow glaze unevenly applied to show the unglazed biscuit base of the bowl. The inside of a tea bowl is always glazed, the biscuit is very often wavey and irregular.
Against such a background the various pottery utensils show to their best advantage and the Japanese delight in harmonious contrast can be given free rein. Against such a background a single white camelia in an unglazed pottery jar makes a thing of beauty. Metal, especially bright polished metal, is taboo; only in summer the pot or bowl (furo) which holds the charcoal fire for heating the water is sometimes of iron or bronze, as is the hot water kettle itself. The tea bowls (cha wan), the container for the cold water (mizu sashi), the low-bowl (mizu koboshi) into which the waste water is emptied, the jar (cha ire) which holds the powdered tea and the small box for holding incense (kogo) all are of pottery or porcelain. In the winter a lacquer lid replaces the pottery lid of the water jar. At any season a lacquered incense box and container for tea may replace the pottery ones.
The delicate workmanship of the highly polished lacquer things and the sturdy roughness of the pottery utensils contrast delightfully and each enhances the beauty of the other. Porcelain is not used much for cha no yu utensils (cha ki), its hard white surface and brilliant colours are not much liked by cha jin but the knowledge of multi-colour enamel decoration acquired in the making of porcelain was used to good advantage by Japanese potters in the decoration of pottery for cha no yu. Because of cha no yu the pottery of Japan is more truly representative of Japanese art than is porcelain, which remains to this day pretty much a copy of Chinese or European models.
The aesthetic teachings of cha no yu have created and perpetuated a criterion by which not only the art but the manner of life and etiquette of the people is judged; for "etiquette" (gyogi) in Japan as "decorum" (li) in China is of vital importance in the lives of all classes of people. The emphasis of cha no yu on self control and of concentration on the task at hand has undoubtedly contributed to the mental health of the Japanese but the insistance of cha do on formalism and ceremony has exerted an influence that is perhaps open to criticism. Again, we can find proof in the language, for one word expressive of misfortune or trouble literally translated means "the unexpected." But even in view of such evident drawbacks it must be admitted that cha no
