Red tea bowl with fisherman

Raku tea bowls were first created by Chōjirō (d.1589), a maker of earthenware tiles, under the direction of the great tea master Sen no Rikyū (1522–1591). The light clay, thick black or red glaze, and hand-built forms combined to suggest the simplicity and rustic quality desired by Rikyū. The slightly exaggerated surface treatment of this bowl, as well as the roughly incised image of a fisherman trolling his boat, suggests that it was created later in the Edo period when tea enthusiasts and potters began to venture beyond the conservative and somber wabi aesthetic preferred by Rikyū.