RAKU RYŌNYŪ (KICHIZAEMON IX, 1756-1834)
A Red Raku Ware Tea Bowl
Edo period (1615-1868), after 1811
The earthenware chawan featuring a variegated glaze of shades of red, orange, gray, black, and white, all under a clear glaze, with vertical walls retaining traces of the tools used to carve and shape them, including a soft band carved into the exterior wall, and ridges circling the interior wall, the sides leading to an undulating rim, the underside and the foot-ring unglazed and revealing a creamy-colored clay body, sealed inside the foot ring Raku
With an old wood tomobako storage box inscribed Aka chawan, signed Raku Ryōnyū, and sealed Raku on the underside of the lid, and sealed Gando rōjin on the underside of the body
3 1/2 x 4 1/4in (8.9 x 10.8cm)
Footnotes:
Provenance
Shibunkaku, Kyoto, early 2000s

Born the second son of the seventh generation Raku Chōnyū (1714-1770), Ryōnyū wasthe ninth generation of the family of ceramists named for the area in Kyoto where their kiln was originally located near Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Jurakudai Palace. Today the Raku family is known as one of the Senke Jusshoku (Jisshoku), the ten families which provide tea utensils to the three tea ceremony schools which trace their lineage back to the tea master Sen no Rikyū, with the Raku being responsible for chawan. The name Kichizaemon is passed from generation to generation of the heads of the family. Raku ware tea bowls are especially prized for being hand formed, rather than being thrown on the wheel, and for their insulative properties. They are also frequently individually fired in small kilns, and removed from the kiln while they are still red hot, producing random kiln effects due to their rapid cooling after removal.