Tea Bowl

This type of wide-mouthed bowl was used every day in Korea, not exclusively for tea drinking. But when it was introduced to Japan around the early 1500s, its imperfect appearance, which evokes the aesthetics of wabi-sabi, caused it to be repurposed as a tea bowl. Korean tea bowls were circulated as a item of foreign luxury among Japanese military elites. Possibly produced in one of the kilns established by the trading office (Waegwan) in Busan, southern Gyeongsang province, this type of tea bowl was sold to Japanese tea bowl collectors. According to a historical record dated to 1641, one trading boat shipped more than 14,000 tea bowls to Japan.