The Art of Tea

In the sixteenth century, the Samurai Hideyoshi, under the tutelage of the Buddhist monk Sen no Rikyū, codified and popularised the rituals of the Japanese form of the Tea Ceremony. Two families were given the hereditary right to produce tea bowls for this ceremony, the Raku family and the Ohi family.

 

I am holding a Raku III tea bowl from the early 17th C. In the collections of the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

Chinese Tea Culture originated by at least as early as the Han Dynasty (202 BCE -220 CE). The Chinese Tea Ceremony continues to be practiced into the present day, both throughout China and globally.

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Above is a carved wood teapot sculpture, roughly 5' tall. Located in the exhibition spaces of the Daning International Tea City, near Yanchang Lu and the Shanghai University Baoshan Campus. The largest wholesale tea market in Shanghai, they have traditional Chinese tea ceremony demonstrations regularly.

Europeans responded to the import of tea, tea wares, and of tea rituals by creating their own customs and etiquette. The presentation of tea developed into a formal event that often includes elaborate serving wares and carefully prepared cakes, pastries, and sweets.

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The 19th C Sèvres Reticulated Tea Service pictured here was a particularly complex technological achievement that drew upon styles found in Asian ceramics. The term "reticulated" refers to the open lattice network of the outer walls of the double-walled porcelain vessels. In the Louvre collections.