RAKU CHA RYU

After our last firing, Sasaki-sensei and I prepared tea together. In ancient times, tea people would write down records of their tea ceremonies and of the most important pieces they saw. It was called a chakaiki . This is a modern chakaiki with pictures and commentaries. Tokonoma — white boats and blue beauties All of this trip was made possible thanks to the help of Alex Kerr, a famous american writer in love with Japan and expert in —at least— calligraphy. As Sasaki’s friend, he accepted me in his old house full of treasures, only forty minutes by bicycle from the workshop —and that was the closest house ! My legs will certainly remember the seven endlessly uphill kilometers that I had to ride every morning in the mountains. But my heart will surely also remember Alex Kerr’s generosity. Before I left the house, Mr. Kerr offered me one of his calligraphy. He signs his works instead of using a stamp — I think that is his way of playing between Western and Eastern trad...

Sasaki during our last firing at Shoraku About two weeks ago, I asked Sasaki-sensei to make two tea bowls. The first one had to be made for his personal use, the second for his family. None of them should be made to be sold. What did he understood of my words ? I have no idea. Nevertheless, he started to make four bowls… Later, he would explain that it was a way to make sure that at least two would survive…but each bowl he made was different. One of these tea bowls will be my « ceramic » conclusion to this internship. Master’s style Sasaki-sensei il a smiling and sweet man, convivial and fond of bright colors. He loves shiny green glazes, chalk white shoes and the Japanese tapas bars where saké is overflowing.   A black or a red raku tea bowl is not exactly the perfect expression of his character. One can feel it in Sasaki’s works. His creations alternate between classic dark/red and colorful essays. Sasaki's tea bowls Before our last fi...

Reaching the end This is the end of my experience.  On the 2nd of August, I went up in the mountain one last time, to Shoraku workshop.   Right in front of me, Sasaki-sensei fired the pieces that I asked him to design for his family. Then I had to choose the pieces I would bring back to Paris…or somewhere else…and we made tea together, one last time, with our tea bowls still burning hot. Why did I decide to make this trip ? Why ceramic again ? This question never left me. Freedom of the slave Hegel said that the master think s/he is free because the slave obeys him but that, in fact, the slave learns to act on the world itself while the master is everyday more dependent him/her. The dialectic between the master and the slave is, among other things, that the one that is at first deprived of freedom is in fact getting more freedom that the one that thinks that s/he is free. Tea masters buy ceramics that they never make. They organize i...

Let's all rejoice for the very first surviving chawan is out of the kiln...many died in the way Pascal in two minds Pascal once wrote that there was two kind of minds : the intuitive and the geometrical. No mind is purely one or the other without being totally wrong but each has its preference. The geometrical mind knows how to formulate great principles and categories that are difficult to apply. « Thou shall never lie » says the geometrical mind, and it does so with an almost laughable   mathematic rigor. Such kind of mind is not wrong in the way it uses reason but its principles are not adapted to society. Meanwhile, the intuitive mind see the principles that fits each situation but are unable to formulate or even understand great principles that are not in their society.   Long story short : one think but does not see, one sees but does not think. To think or to see, you choose ! Yet, some situations require a certain mind and not the ...

The new born mountain On a dark glaze screen,  a moss of white rock has invaded the tea bowl.  The mountain is getting back what is rightfully hers. Extracting itself from the shadows, she is still fizzling.  Her shape is unclear and diluted like a cloud. She barely outcrop. Crimson gleams shimmer under the surface,  where the earth has yet to be opened. It is a great privilege to hold a mountain in her youth and to drink from her bosom  the first sprouts of tea. Black Oribe chawan by Sasaki Kyoshitsu II

Or why is it so hard to write anything non-polemical about Tea ? « Any miso soup left ? » —Kobori Enshu (probably.) (Quote also more arguably attributed to Hideyoshi Toyotomi) The subject of the tea ceremony and its history is so sensitive among practitioners today that to write a consensual introduction to the tea ceremony is a very difficult task. It is partly due to the fact that contradictory information is common.  Certainly, most people agree very vaguely on the chronology and the basics of Tea. But everything regarding the spirit with which it must be practiced and the interpretations to give to the countless legends and tales that go with it is the subject of great debate. Anyway, that is why I will only stick to the few things that I have understood from my various readings and conversations in the hope that it will be interesting to my readers. I have no pretension to present here the one and unique truth about what tea is or...

A ceramic meditation A Chôjiro style tea bowl from Shôraku workshop. Nothing is more still that burnt clay.   But the light keeps dancing on ceramics with an astonishing refinement. And very often, the most imperfect and simple pieces are the most playful with their environnement. Sometimes, I think that this specific relationship with environnement is one of the roots of the wabi-sabi aesthetic : it creates what I call a welcoming nature . Arts and their nature Frame itself separates the art from our world Most of the western (but also eastern) arts exhibit a strong human presence. The art is somehow remarkable , a human intention separates it from anything that could be called ‘natural’. The vivid colors, the geometrical lines, any pattern or drawing that could be described as more or less realist — which, in fine , means that it creates its own reality — all of these are different ways to distinguish the « human » world made by art from the «...