Special Feature

Background

Tozan Wada is the third generation of Wada family ceramists.  His career began in 1972 when he started apprenticing under Haruo Wada, his father, at the family-owned Kotoura Kiln.  As present day owner of the kiln, he has upheld its longstanding reputation as a maker of the finest tea ceremony utensils.

Tozan Wada works primarily in enamel overglazed pottery and porcelain and follows in the Kyoyaki (Kyoto ware) style of ceramics which originated in Japan in the 17th century.
 

His works display a surprising level of beauty and sophistication with their intricate patterns and masterful brushwork.  Low-relief enameled images of seasonal blossoms - detailed with gold and framed by a monochrome backdrop - are a common theme on his tea ceremony bowls (chawan) and fresh water jars.

Yet, Kyoyaki is just one facet of Tozan Wada's artistry.  Earlier in his 30-year ceramic making career, and only with his father's approval, the artist decided to try his hand at another type of tea ceremony bowl - the one most closely associated with the world of tea ceremony.  Raku.  The decision would turn out to be the most challenging mental endeavor he would face as a ceramic artist.  Raku, it seems, contains a certain paradox. 

"Any potter can make a bowl, fire it, and call it a chawan.  People may look at it and decide that it's good, that it's beautiful.  But what made it that way?  So much pottery is really born inside the kiln.  The kiln changes glaze, creates details and gives pottery its character.  Isn't this beyond the control of its maker?

With Raku-yaki, you are responsible for the entire process, step-by-step, from one to ten.  The bowl must be visualized in the mind so completely that what's created is like a small universe.  This requires complete concentration - from kneading the clay to firing.  And if the end result isn't what was visualized through the entire process, it's not a real chawan.

This is a very strict, very precise world.  That's what makes Raku the most difficult."

Kyoyaki Enamel Overglaze
Tea Ceremony Bowl

by Tozan Wada

Kyoyaki Enamel Overglaze
Fresh Water Jar

by Tozan Wada

Entering the World of Raku

For Japanese ceramists who specialize in ocha-dogu, like Tozan Wada, Raku is a kind of calling.  For those who heed the call, the technique demands the utmost in discipline and devotion to the art.  For laypersons, this might seem difficult to grasp.  Such a simple vessel surely can't be all that difficult to produce. 

To truly appreciate Raku tea ceremony bowls, though, one must understand the Zen principles central to Japanese tea ceremony - harmony, reverence, purity, and tranquility.  This explains the spartan tea ceremony room with it's uncluttered open space; tea utensils made from humble pieces of bamboo; vases displaying the solitary beauty of a single flower.  In Zen, emptiness is liberating.  Simplicity is freedom.  Even the most mundane and simplest of things can be elevated to an art during the tea ceremony.

For Tozan Wada, the taking up of Raku would require a complete 180 degree turn in his approach to ceramic making.  Where the beauty of Kyoyaki derives from intricate details and thematic elements, Zen-inspired Raku does not.  Having trained for years in enamel brushwork, the artist would have to forget all the lessons of the past and start all over again with only a piece of clay in his hands, a bare tabletop, and a vision in his mind with which to guide him.

Form & Process

It can be said that Raku is the epitome of the individualist's art.  In the absence of decoration and movement, Raku allows the artist to speak much more intimately with the viewer.  The final product becomes a true manifestation of the artist's mind.  As Tozan Wada explains:

"You have to know from the start what shape, what color, what texture you want and what kind of vessel will appeal to people and make them want to drink tea from it.  Raku requires complete concentration - from kneading the clay to firing the bowl.  If the end result is anything other than what I visualized, I destroy it and try again."

The forming and firing of Raku ware is unique from other types of ceramics as well.  Each bowl is formed completely by hand and without the aid of a potter's wheel.  To add any sort of mechanization to the process would give the work an artificial quality that would detract from the artist's message.  The shape of the bowl is of the utmost importance.  As Tozan Wada explains:

"Without decoration, the first visual clue that people have when they approach a chawan is its shape.  This is the first thing that has to appeal to people, so it has to be very carefully thought out.  This initial step, actually, is the most difficult in the entire process."

Once glazed and dried, Raku bowls are low-fired in a charcoal burning kiln made especially for Raku firing.  The temperature inside the beehive shaped kiln never reaches the highs that give stoneware pottery its durability, so Raku tea bowls are lightweight, extremely delicate and make a flat tok-tok sound when tapped on the side.  In Raku, the impermanence of life extends to pottery as well. 
 

WA034

 

Black Raku Style Tea Ceremony Bowl

by Tozan Wada

 

WA033

Red Raku Style Tea Ceremony Bowl

by Tozan Wada

"Ichi Raku..."

There is an old tea adage that boldly proclaims Raku's preeminence among chawan produced in other areas of Japan.  It goes, "ichi Raku, ni Hagi, san Karatsu", or first Raku, second Hagi, third Karatsu.  The criteria used in this ranking are open to question.  Perhaps the number one position that Raku holds comes from its historical roots and importance in The Way of Tea.  Perhaps it is an aesthetic evaluation.  If so, isn't the beauty of a chawan in the eye of the its holder?

For a potter with three decades of experience, Tozan Wada avoids making such simplistic evaluations.  After all, there is no "best" chawan.  He will concede, though, that Raku is certainly number one in its difficulty.