Filtering by Tag: teaware

Halifax Tea Festival 2016

Added on by the ikebana shop.

Here's a collection of images from the Halifax Tea Festival held on April 9th, 2016 at the Halifax Forum.  Thank you to all who visited our booth!

The matcha cookies and cupcakes were a big hit!  We made 3 matcha intensity levels for the cupcakes: 

 
  • Level 1 = a hint of matcha (for those who love subtleties)
  • Level 2 = medium (for those who love balance)
  • Level 3 = intense and strong (for the die-hard matcha lover!)

We also brought Japanese teaware....and free hand-made coasters with every purchase!

And of course, tea tasting!

Here's our little matcha tasting corner.  We served matcha with imo-kempi (a Japanese snack made from sweet potato.)

...and some nice images from the Twitterverse.

See you next year! 

Gohonte: The Pale Pink Spots

Added on by the ikebana shop.

Have you noticed in some tea bowls pale pink spots showing up at random?

These spots are called "gohonte" (御本手).

They appear on the pottery due to the natural reactions from the iron found in the clay when being fired in the kiln.

The origin of the term "gohonte" dates back to the Azuchi-Momoyama period (late 1500's).  Tea masters ordered tea bowls to be made in Korea. Together with their order, they sent samples or diagrams of what they would like made. These  orders were called "gohon" or "gohonte".  When the ordered pottery were delivered, most of them came with the pale pink spots due to the clay used. Soon, this type of pattern came to be called "gohonte."

Originally thought of as imperfections of the glaze, gohonte came to be appreciated by tea masters.  They recognized the implicit beauty in the randomness, unevenness, and naturalness of the patterns.  Thus, the "flaw" was turned into another attractive aspect of the pottery!

Sometimes, we have some gohonte tea bowls available at the shop.  Please come and take a look!  Or see available tea bowls online here.

 

All photos by the ikebana shop.  Al rights reserved.

Ohi Tea Bowl

Added on by the ikebana shop.

​Ohi-yaki style of pottery dates back to 1666, when the 5th Lord of Kaga, Maeda Tsunanori, established the kiln under the guidance of Urasenke teamaster Sen Soshitsu.  The Ohi style is related to Raku.  In fact, the first Ohi potter, Donyu (who later took on the name Chozaemon), was the son of Raku III and apprenticed with the fourth Raku master, Ichinyu.

Ohi style pottery does not use a potter's wheel.  All are shaped by hand and pulled out of the kiln while the glaze is melting. Using pine wood, firing is done at low temperature (1000℃).  The pottery is cooled quickly and takes on a deep amber colour.  

Ohi pottery is well-known with tea ceremony practitioners.

This Ohi-yaki tea bowl by Ohi Ippei (1920-1993).