If you have chance to go to Kyoto and to visit around Imperial Palace area,
I highly highly recommend to stop by a museum called “Raku Museum”（樂美術館）as a local, Japanese!
Click here to visit official website:)
Brief History of Raku Tea Bowl
Sen-no-Rikyu, who is said to have given the most profound influence, invented Raku bowl.
He asked to make the Raku bowl as a best suitable bowl for a tea ceremony style called Wabi Souan (tea served in a small hearth).
The person who commissioned the Raku bowl was Chojiro.
He was a tile craftsman; that is, his profession was not originally tea bowl.
Access
It takes around five (or less) minutes from the closest bus/metro stop.
You can check its clear guidance on the official website of the museum.
Address for Goole Map:
Aburanokôji-dôri Ichijô sagaru Kamigyo-ku Kyoto 602-0923
3 Reasons to visit Raku Museum
These are the three reasons why I highly recommend to go there:
Authenticity
Although Raku bowl is very famous and popular all around Japan,
here is the only place where you can experience very real, genuin, and authentic Raku culture.
Which means even Japanese people don’t have access to it unless they go there (in Kyoto!).
English Description
Though this museum gives very traditional exhibitions, almost all of them have English descriptions!
That’s awesome!
Unfortunately, this case is still rare in Japan: the more traditional expo is, the less English there is.
But not for this museum: it is friendly to anyone.
If you can understand what is written in this webpage, you can understand and 100% enjoy the museum then!
By the way…
Personally I like to see their Instagram account!
The pictures are wonderful, and each post has an English description as well.
Artistic
I truly promise that you will be amazed because everything is beautiful;
not only the exhibition, but the entrance, the rooms, roads, etc.
Here you can find the spirit of Japanese people and culture.
That is, they pay attention to every detail.
My personal experience
What stood out when I visited in my mind is how the creators lived with their era.
Let me give you some examples.
The founder, Chōjirō, focused on simplicity very much. On the other hand, some late generations made tea bowls more creative and inventive.
During WW2 (since Japan went to war and attacked countries), the bowl is very simple, but I would say its simplicity is different from the bowls Chōjirō created.
Looking at these bowls, what came into my mind is that you can live your own story, which makes your life so precious, beautiful, and special.
This visit encouraged me not to compare with others:)
コメント