The Easel

Archives: Leila Phillip

6th June 2015

A Ceramic Fairytale: Chigussa and the Art of Tea in Japan

The Japanese tea ceremony perfectly reflects the Japanese aesthetic and some tea making objects are coveted as works of art. This piece considers how an ordinary 14th century brown jar has become one of Japan’s most revered tea objects – art by selection rather than creation. Already by the sixteenth century warlords had their eyes onr Chigusa: it had become “the Elvis Presley of the medieval world of tea”.