by Lam Wong, 2022

In the buddhist tradition, there is a legend of how during a sermon Buddha transmiteo the mysterious dharma. Keeping silent, Buddha simply raised a single stem of a totus flower and smiled. While all the monks were puzzled by his gesture, Mahākasyapa摩诃迦叶, one of the Buddha's senior disciples. smiled and understood Buddha's intention and WIsdom perfectly. Without words, all in silence-this has come to be known as "heart-to-heart transmission."

Along with his or her robes, a bowl is the most important of a monk's possessions. When a master has chosen a successor, he or she would pass on these two items as proof of lineage. One of mankind's earliest hand-crafted containers, a tea bowl is made of stone or clay. With care it can withstand the rigours of harsh weather and last for centuries. a tea bowl is made of stone or clay. With care it can withstand the rigours of harsh weather and last for centruries. Just like the human spirit, a bowl withstands all the complexities of life but expresses itself in a quiet way: simple yet conveying significant meaning.

Unaffected by time and discursive thoughts, a chawan 茶碗 (tea bowl) plays the role of a silent messenger in the Zen-inspired ritualistic tea ceremony, whether in Chinese tea sage Lu Yu's 陆羽 (773-804) wilderness tea hermitage or inside Japanese Chanoyu 茶汤 grandmaster Sen no Rikyū (1522-1591) asymmetrical tea room. The chawan quietly holds the sacred message of the tea maker's intention. The bowl carries all the essence of life and the tea itself as it's passed from tea maker to drinker. In virtually a religious manner, the beauty of this process is unvoiced but understood, like Buddha's raising a single lotus flower.

During the late southern Song Dynasty 宋朝 (1127-1279), tea from the Wuyi Mountain 武夷山 area in Southern China became popular among the elite and court members in the Chinese capital, Hangzhou. A new culture of stoneware tea bowls using rich dark glazes developed in the small town of Jianyang 建阳 near Wuyishan. The old Jian ware 建盏 kiln sites 建窑 and ruins showcase the history of the area's chawan craftsmanship. Mainly used in tea ceremonies, Tenmoku 天目, meaning heavenly eye, was one type of stoneware created in Jian kilns during the Song Dynasty. These dark oil-spotted glazed bowls are arguably the most highly prized chawan in the world, having achieved prominent status among tea lovers. One good example in this exhibition's collection is the Tenmoku chawan with hare's fur glaze in mottled black. When looking inside the tea bowl, one feels as if embraced by a black hole void of all form, falling back to the very beginning of our mysterious universe.

Every tea bowl has its own personality embedded within its history and holds a special secret or spirit carried down through the ages from its original owner. Even after its owner has long passed, like Buddha's relics after his Pali Nirvana 涅槃, each chawan embodies a story. The Kizaemon-Ido (16th Century), a Korean Ido (Water Well) type glazed, everyday tea bow is an example of such a rare object. This chawan was made during the Keicho era in Japan with the most ordinary material, backyard clay and casual ash glaze. A wealthy merchant named Takeda Kizaemon from Osaka was its first owner. When Kizaemon lost his fortune, he was forced to sell all of his possessions, but he refused to part with this tea bowl. However, the bowl was believed to possess an evil spirit that cursed Kizaemon and all of the bowl's successive owners. Each successive owner contracted boils, a troubling skin disease. This Korean Ido tea-bowl was eventually housed at Daitoku-ji in Kyoto, a temple associated with Japan's most influential tea master, Senno Riky, and the great artist Kobori Enshū. Now the Kisaemon-Ido has become likely the single most valuable chawan in the world and a designated National Treasure of Japan.

Yanagi Setsu 柳宗元 (1889-1961) explained in his book The Unknown Craftsman, translated by the prominent British potter Bernard Leach:

“All heautiful tea-bowls are those obedient to nature. Natural thíngs are healthy 20s. There are many kinds of art, but none is better than this. Nature produces still more startling results than artifice. The most detailed human knowledge is puerile before the wisdom of nature. Why should beauty ermerge from the world of the ordinary? The answer is because that world is natural. In Zen there is a safing that at the far end of the road lies effortless peace. What more can be desired? So, too, peaceful beauty. The beauty of the Kizaemon ldo bowl is that of strife less peace, and it is fitting that it should rest in that chapel, the Koho-an 孤篷庵, for in that quiet place it offers its silent answer to the seeker.”

Fine chawan often communicate and express the Wabi-Sabi 诧寂 philosophy, an aesthetic that values the beauty of life's imperfection and impermanence. This concept is epitomized in the art of Kintsugi 金䦅 , an ancient Japanese technique of mending broken ceramic. Kintsugi is a metaphor for acceptance, self-discovery and healing. It sees suffering or the brokenness of traumatic events as part of life. Kintsugi teaches us to be patient and calm, and to remain positive. It helps us learn from our mistakes and appreciate the flaws of life, allowing healing to transfom something broken into something more beautiful over time. Here in this exhibition a broken chawan with zigzag golden lines holds this sacred message of embracing our flaws and imperfections. There is no Nirvana without Samsara, no liberation without suffering. 

After water, tea is the most popular drink in the world. The art of tea is a vital and meaningful practice. Sharing tea brings harmony and peace to people from different backgrounds. Though apparently simple, preparing and serving tea requires lfelong.