Tea bowl with cranes

This pair of red and black tea bowls features incised designs of cranes and turtles, both auspicious motifs associated with longevity. The underside of each bowl is marked with the character Raku, indicating that it was made by an artist in the famous Raku family of master potters, in this case Raku Ryōnyū the family’s ninth-generation head. Raku wares are generally hand-shaped—as opposed to being thrown on a wheel—and are fired at relatively low temperatures. With a history dating to the end of the sixteenth century, the Raku family workshops counted many of the capital’s elite tea masters among their patrons.