Sasaki Shōraku (佐々木昭楽): Raku Workshop in Kameoka near Kyōto
Sasaki Shōraku (佐々木昭楽) is both the name of a pottery workshop and the artist name of its third-generation bearer. What is produced is Raku ware – that hand-built, wheel-less ware fired at low temperature, which has been inseparably linked to the tea ceremony since the 16th century. The kiln is located in Kameoka, a town west of Kyōto.
From the Tea Bowl Lane to Kameoka: the Kiln's History Since 1905
The history of the kiln begins in 1905, when the founder Sasaki Kichinosuke began working at the foot of the Kiyomizu slope – in that lane which to this day is called Chawanzaka, Tea Bowl Lane. In 1944 the workshop relocated to Kameoka. During this move it was given the name Shōraku (松楽). The line of succession runs from the founder Kichinosuke through the second bearer Shōraku (松楽) and the third Shōraku (昭楽) to today's fourth bearer.
The third Shōraku was born in 1944 and trained from 1962 under his father, the second-generation bearer. His focus of work lies on re-creations – in Japanese, Utsushi – of the tea bowls of Chōjirō and Hon'ami Kōetsu. Utsushi is not an imitation in Japanese ceramics, but a recognized genre: the deliberate resumption of a classical model as an engagement with it.
昭楽 and 松楽: Two Spellings, the Same Reading
For classifying a piece, one particularity is important. The spellings 昭楽 and 松楽 are both read Shōraku, but denote different levels of production: individual works by the artist are signed with 佐々木昭楽, workshop works under the artist name with 佐々木松楽, and plain kiln ware bears the designation Kirai-gama (帰来窯). Anyone comparing two pieces with a seemingly identical reading may therefore be dealing with different stages of production. Neither of these should be confused with the spelling 紹楽.
Choosing a Raku Tea Bowl
When choosing a Raku Chawan, the glaze is the first deciding factor: Kuro-Raku in deep black appears austere and makes the green of the tea glow, while the warmer Aka-Raku tones appear more inviting and show the tea residue less. Next comes the hand. Because Raku is hand-built without a potter's wheel and fired at low temperature, the body remains porous and the bowl strikingly light; wall thickness, lip, and foot ring differ with each piece and speak of the shaping. Tea bowls of this origin come, at Densho, with the signed wooden box (Tomobako), which accompanies the object over the years and is considered part of the piece in Japanese ceramics.
