Director’s Foreword

Reynolds, Jock

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Director’s Foreword

Jock Reynolds

Tea Culture of Japan

IN JULY 2005, 116 WORKS OF ART relating to the tea culture of Japan arrived at the Yale University Art Gallery, on loan from Peggy and Richard M. Danziger, LL.B. 1963. The collectors’ expressed wish was that the objects would be experienced directly by students engaged in the study of Japan and Japanese...

Author

Jock Reynolds

PublisherYale University Art Gallery

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00115.002

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-18216

Director’s Foreword

In July 2005, 116 works of art relating to the tea culture of Japan arrived at the Yale University Art Gallery, on loan from Peggy and Richard M. Danziger, LL.B. 1963. The collectors’ expressed wish was that the objects would be experienced directly by students engaged in the study of Japan and Japanese culture. Thus began a period of close examination and documentation of the works—a process that was organized by Sadako Ohki, the Japan Foundation Associate Curator of Japanese Art—and an intense interaction with the art of tea for some very fortunate Yale University students.

The first result of this loan was an undergraduate seminar on the art of tea taught by Mimi Hall Yiengpruksawan, professor in the Department of the History of Art at Yale, in the spring of 2006. Class discussions were enlivened by the presence of guest participants—Dick Danziger, the owner of the collection and a true connoisseur; Takeshi Watanabe, a recent recipient of a doctorate from Yale; and curator Sadako Ohki.

Following this fruitful class, five tea bowls and a screen from the Danziger collection were included as promised gifts in the Gallery’s fall 2007 exhibition Art for Yale: Collecting for a New Century and were illustrated in the catalogue with accompanying text by Ohki and Watanabe. Watanabe, a contributor to the present publication as well, conducted further research and wrote an article on the five tea bowls for the 2007 Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin, which presented important new research by scholars on Japanese art and celebrated the recent and dramatic growth of the Japanese collection at the Gallery. Its success was due in no small part to the notable gifts to the Gallery from the Danziger and Leighton Longhi collections. Major purchases were also made possible by the encouragement and expertise of Professor Yiengpruksawan and the financial support of the Japan Foundation Endowment of the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale.

Further expanding on the foundation the Gallery has built over the past several years to encourage the study and appreciation of Japanese art, our engagement with the Danziger collection has now blossomed into the exhibition Tea Culture of Japan: Chanoyu Past and Present and this accompanying catalogue, both of which highlight the beautiful objects from this collection. The Danzigers’ desire to see the works of art in their collection play a pivotal role in a teaching museum has dovetailed neatly with the Gallery’s educational mission to create and enhance opportunities for active learning within the academic community at Yale. Tea Culture of Japan has been further enriched by generous loans from other private collections and supplemented by objects from the Gallery’s own holdings.

This exhibition and publication examine the importance of Japanese tea culture and the ways in which it has evolved over the centuries. Contrary to popular expectations, not all of the works in the exhibition are Japanese; preparatory research for the exhibition has allowed us to determine that the culture of tea that matured in the sixteenth century in Japan was stimulated by objects from abroad—from China, Korea, Vietnam, and Europe—and that the arts of tea continue to be responsive to new stimuli as the practice has spread from Japan to other countries. Tea Culture of Japan reflects the taste of the various owners and their individual understanding of the art of tea, revealed in the unique combination of objects from the past and the present. It also demonstrates these collectors’ keen sensibility in creating a new vocabulary for the beauty of the aged, mended, imperfect, and novel.

The present publication is the first English-language exhibition catalogue to focus on the objects used in the tea ceremony, and it further explores the aesthetics and history of the traditional Japanese tea service, examining the nature of tea collections and the links between connoisseurship, politics, and international relations. It also surveys current practices and settings in light of the ongoing transformation of the tradition in contemporary art and tea houses. Among the cherished objects discussed and reproduced are ceramic tea bowls, bamboo tea scoops, iron kettles, and lacquered incense containers, as well as Zen-inspired calligraphic works.

The inclusive and evolving nature of the arts of tea—from ceramics to textiles, calligraphy to choreographed tea practice, tea house construction to the use of modern images for a tokonoma alcove in progressive tea setup—is well illustrated by the exhibition and catalogue, making tea accessible to scholars as well as the general public. Not only students of Japanese art, history, and literature but also those studying issues of globalization, contemporary arts and crafts, and world architecture will find much of interest by visiting the exhibition and reading this publication. Since Japanese tea is an active form of art, tea ceremonies will be performed at the Gallery by prominent tea specialists from Japan, and the public will have a chance to experience the physicality of the art. We are particularly grateful for support from the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale and the Tōdai-Yale Initiative, which has made possible an international symposium on tea that will be held in April 2009. Such activities give deeper meaning to the exhibition.

Both the exhibition and publication received generous support from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation; Ann and Gilbert H. Kinney, B.A. 1953, M.A. 1954; the Japan Foundation Endowment of the Council on East Asian Studies; and an endowment created with a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and we are grateful for their help in making this project possible.

Long after the exhibition is over, the present catalogue will continue to provide a comprehensive history of Japanese tea culture, including twenty-first-century practice, and offer rich visual aids illuminating a wide array of tea utensils. Tea Culture of Japan will serve as an important tool for those who wish to attain a deeper understanding of the art of Japanese tea.

Jock Reynolds
The Henry J. Heinz II Director
Yale University Art Gallery

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