Brown Oribe Flower Holder with Handles

Tearoom flower arrangements grew out of the practice of ikebana, which had its beginnings in altar flower offerings in Buddhist monasteries. Chabana, or tearoom flowers, originated alongside the Japanese-style tea culture, wabi-cha, advanced by Sen no Rikyu (1522–1591). The way these compositions are made often appears to be as though someone just came in from the outside after snipping the flowers and threw them in the container. However, much thought and planning go into making these types of arrangements. The role of the flowers in the tearoom is to further accentuate our connection with nature. Just as the tea comes from tea plants, the water from mountain streams, tea bowls made from clay, flowers represent our surroundings and the changes of the seasons. At the start of the tea gathering, the tea master often introduces the flowers to the guests.

This rare brown Oribe flower holder was made in the Momoyama period, capturing the wabi-sabi aesthetic of Japanese tea culture. The tall vessel has a wide, quince-shaped (mokkō) mouth, connected to the square body through a narrower, round, coil-built neck. The neck is embellished with two, irregularly formed loop handles, one on each side. The body is partially decorated with incised geometric patterns, including a mesh design, and the front and the two sides are covered in a dark brown glaze, while a large section of the back reveals the natural color of the clay with natural ash glaze on it. While the warm, brown iron glaze (ame-yū), typically created in oxidation firing, was used in Mino, the quality of the glaze is similar to Karatsu ceramics, particularly ones excavated from the Kameya kiln site. It could be explained with the transmission of the climbing kiln building technique from Karatsu to Mino, the first such kiln being Motoyashiki in Kujiri. The asymmetrical, rustic shape of the flower holder, on the other hand, is similar to Iga ware. This work demonstrates a stylistic cross-over between Oribe and Iga ware and the Karatsu-style glazing technique. Around the same time Oribe ware flourished, two other ceramic types could be found in Kyoto tea rooms: Iga ware and Karatsu ware. Inspired by this competition, potters in Mino found ways to imitate these popular styles, using local materials.