Wabicha and the Perception of Beauty in Wood-fired Ceramics

Abstract

Wabicha and the Perception of Beauty in Wood-fired Ceramics I developed a passion for the surface effects found on Japanese wood-fired pottery when I read the book, The Heritage of Japanese Ceramics, by Fujio Koyama in 1975. In retrospect this was a significant moment in my life, for the unglazed ceramics from Shigaraki, Bizen, Tokoname, and Tamba that are shown in that book set the trajectory of my making career—unglazed pottery fired in large cross-draught kilns with the deposits of ash from the fire melting and glazing the surface. In recent years, wood-firing has become a major contributor to the world of contemporary ceramics. My research started as an attempt to better understand the sources that contributed to the aesthetic of wood-firing that was reported and discussed in conferences and magazines. This Dissertation contends that the seminal process, which formed an aesthetic of wood-firing, was the development of the philosophy of wabi in the period between 1450 and 1600 during the creation of the wabi Tea ceremony, wabicha. I maintain that without wabi and wabicha, the surface effects of wood-firing would not be seen as beautiful. In my Dissertation I investigate the sources of wabi, its development alongside the development of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, its transmission through to the twentieth century, its role in the aestheticisation of wood-firing, and its rediscovery and re-invention in the 1930s. I then look at its cross-cultural transfer to the global ceramic community as a foundation for the current widespread interest in wood-firing. This Dissertation constitutes two-thirds of my theory-led research project. Show more