The Kura - Japanese Art Treasures

Robert Mangold has been working with Japanese antiques since 1995 with an emphasis on ceramics, Paintings, Armour and Buddhist furniture.

Unusual Otagaki Rengetsu Hissen Chawan Tea Bowl


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Directory: Antiques: Regional Art: Asian: Japanese: Stoneware: Pre 1900: Item # 1471822

Please refer to our stock # OC052 when inquiring.
The Kura
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817-2 Kannonji Monzen-cho
Kamigyo-ku Kyoto 602-8385
tel.81-75-201-3497
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sold, thank you

Scrolling characters are inscribed into the side of this hand formed elongated basin by Otagaki Rengetsu enclosed in the original signed wooden box titled Hissen Chawan (Brush washer shaped Tea bowl). The poem reads:
Shigayama ya On Mount Shiga...
hana no shirayuki flowers like white snow
harahara to flutter down
furuki miyako no in the ancient capital
haru zo kure yuku. Spring is fading
The bowl is 17 x 12 x 7 cm (6-1/2 x 4-3/4 x 2-3/4 inches) and is in excellent condition.
Otagaki Rengetsu was born into a samurai family, she was adopted into the Otagaki family soon after birth, and served as a lady in waiting in Kameoka Castle in her formative years, where she received an education worthy of a Lady of means. Reputed to be incredibly beautiful, she was married and bore three children; however, her husband and all children died before she was twenty. Remarried she bore another daughter, however that child too perished and her husband died while she was just 32. Inconsolable, she cut off her hair to join the nunnery at Chion-in Temple, where she renounced the world and received the name Rengetsu (Lotus Moon). However, this was not the end, but only the beginning of a career as artist and poet which would propel her to the top of the 19th century Japan literati art world.