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context: ceramics > modern
Takeda Mokurai 1854-1930
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tea bowl by Mokurai |
Mokurai was a Zen monk who really should have a page in the painting section, and he certainly will, one of these days. Ceramics was a very minor sideline, but I couldn't resist including him for the pictured tea bowl. The image on it is a 'Zen jewel', the idea of something wonderful inside everyone; but the inscription inside the lid of the bowl's box, which is a poem by Gibon Sengai, plays with a pun between 'jewels' and 'testicles'. There aren't a lot of jokes in this section, so I wanted to include that.