Poetry Inspired Pottery - The Adornment of Japanese Tea Ware

By Laura Vermeulen

 Poetry and pottery share a fascinating synergy in conveying the beauty and incomprehensibility of the wabi ‘way of tea’ (chadō). While tea vessels (wabi-cha) embody the Zen spirit of simplicity and austerity, a deliberate form of ‘artless’ aesthetics curated by tea master Sen no Rikyu 千利休 (1522-1591), poetry is able to lay bare the spiritual layers and cultural significance of tea-drinking while often wrapped in a simple riddle. 

A beautiful example of the fusion between poetry and pottery are the many tea-themed surimono, where a comical kyōka  (a parody of tanka) is accompanied by a still life of a New-year tea ceremony. These seemingly humorous ‘New Year cards’ actually reveal a much more complex composition and play of words. Taking this example from Hokusai (fig. 1), the Sōma pot in the front is adorned with a drawing of a wild horse, a motif from the Sōma family crest. A clever choice, as wild horses are considered