CHIEN WARE

Tea bowl, Chien-type stoneware with "sparkling" oil spots (yohen temmoku) from 1/4 Chinese (Wade-Giles) Chien Yao, (Pinyin) Jian Yao, also called (in Japan) Temmoku wareTemmoku also spelled Tenmoku dark brown or blackish Chinese stoneware made for domestic use chiefly during the Sung dynasty (960-1279) and into the early 14th century. Chien ware was made in Fukien province, first in kilns at Chien-an and later at Chien-yang. The clay used for Chien ware was of a very hard, coarse grain. The inside and about two-thirds of the outside is covered with a thick, very dark glaze (coloured with iron oxide) that usually stops short of the outer base in a thick welt; the glaze also tended to pool thickly on the inside of the vessel. Within its limited palette (in which a purplish or bluish black or reddish brown predominates), Chien ware has a range of variations. The most prized glazes exhibit characteristic streaking of hare's fur, the mottling of partridge markings, or silvery spotting resembling oil spots. Teabowls are by far the most common, though not the only, form of Chien ware that survives. Used by Ch'an (Zen) Buddhist monks in the Fukien region, the highly esteemed teabowls were carried back to Japan by Japanese monks who had visited China to study Ch'an Buddhism. Until the late 16th century, Chien ware, or temmoku ware, was the type of teabowl preferred for the highly ritualized Japanese tea ceremony.