Tea, mate?

A worthy australian bowls over a japanese grand tea master

Bob Connery is one of the very few Western potters to have his tea bowls recognised by a Japanese grand tea master. The 68-year-old owns a gallery in northern New South Wales in Australia, and before that studied Japanese art in high school. He became interested in pottery when he first saw a Japanese tea bowl, and he then met a Japanese potter who taught him how to make them. Connery became a professional potter in 1978.

Bob bases his designs on “an amalgam of Eastern forms and brushwork derived from ancient Middle-Eastern designs done in the reduced lustre technique… My work, while it conforms to classic principles with regard to form and usage, is decorated in a contemporary style.” Bob is only aware of one Japanese pottery master who uses the reduction lustre technique, and students have come from Japan to study at Bob’s workshop.

Bob makes a wide range of pottery, including different types of tea bowls. The bowls are thrown for a few minutes, then fired three times to ensure the reduced lustre, and glazed. Many of the different bowls created are used for ceremonies dependant on the seasons; summer bowls being shallow to allow the tea to cool quicker, and winter bowls being deeper to maintain heat.
Although Bob has not formally studied Japanese tea ceremony, he has been an observer at a tea master’s classes. The Japanese tea ceremony has a long tradition, the most famous master being Sen no Rikyu. Born in Sakai in 1522, Rikyu helped define the principles of chado (the way of tea): harmony, respect, purity and tranquillity. Following the precedent Rikyu set, three of his great grandsons each founded their own schools of tea based on his teachings. One of these is the internationally renowned Urasenke school.

Before his retirement, Sen Genshitsu (formerly Soshitsu) was the 15th Grand Master of the Urasenke tradition. A Japanese tea master showed one of Bob’s bowls to Sen Genshitsu and he gave some recommendations.

Bob says that tea masters often use poetic, and by Western standards, vague terms to judge tea bowls. “I have been told that my pieces have what they call balance. The tactile qualities are certainly emphasised, as are form and elusive qualities in the glaze and decoration,” he recalls.

The following year, four of Bob’s bowls were formally presented to Sen Genshitsu. Bob describes the grand tea master as “the soul of courtesy, and a most commanding but gentle presence.” Sen Genshitsu deemed his bowls worthy, and performed a “box signing” ceremony to signifying that they were formally accepted for use in tea ceremony.

It is extremely rare for a foreigner to have work signed by a Japanese grand tea master, and Bob was surprised at the reaction. “I don’t even now fully understand what this was all about,” he says, but admits to being held in higher esteem: “I was interviewed on TV and treated with greater respect by many people, and gained entry to places I had not received before.” The signature of tea master Genshitsu ensured that the bowls Connery made are valued at more than ¥500,000 each.

Bob’s gallery is at Stokers Siding on the Tweed Coast (near the Gold Coast) in Australia.

http://www.stokerspottery.com.au/artisans.htm For more information on the Urasenke Tradition of Tea visit www.urasenke.or.jp/texte/index.html.

Text: Aidan Doyle
Photos: Bob Connery