Japanese Tea Bowls

Much like Song-era Chinese tea bowls, some Japanese tea bowls were made in a similar style. Here is a Japanese tea bowl, or chawan that can be used in Chanoyu.

In Song China, they really preferred a black ware tea bowl like this, because the black color better brought out the color of the green powdered tea; the colors contrasted quite well. So in Song China, a lot of black ware tea bowls, from the Jian kilns were quite popular. Some had the so-called "rabbit's fur" pattern on the bowl. Of course, Japanese tenmoku tea bowls are also modeled on the teabowls of the famous Jian ware.