Legend of the Emperor's Bowl
In an ancient time, there lived a very hotheaded military leader named Toyotomi
Hideyoshi. He was known to loose his temper quickly and easily. The servants had to be trained to calm him down and pick up his many messes.The day our story starts was the day of a magnificent tea party. The procedure of serving tea was completed, as always, preciesly and accurately to avoid angering the emperor. Several of the emperor's guests came bearing gifts to honor his name. One gift was a bowl.
As the procedure went, the gifts were to be passed down a long line of people. The bowl was well glazed(as the leader only accepted bowls made by masters), so the surface was slippery to hold. One of the many people passing the bowl lost hold, and the bowl shattered into 5 pieces.
The Hideyoshi was furious! Just as he was about to dishonor the guest and thrust him from his home, a wise man spoke up. He was a quick thinker(maybe you know some one like this), and made up a poem about the bowl on the spot. The poem was a clever linking of the Hideyoshi's name, and the bowl type with a verse pattern like the ones in Tales of Ise.
Became split into five
Alas for that well-deep bowl
All of the blame –
It seems to have been mine.
The Hideuoshi soon relized he was over reacting, and soon began laughing at the man's quick action. He than forgave the unlucky guest who dropped the bowl and had the finest crafts man mend the bowl with gold, to show off its cracks and to remember its story.
To this day, repairing bowl's with gold is a popular art, and the broken bowl is of great cultural importance.
See a more complete version of this legend in A Teardrop View of Mended Ceramics essay in Flickwerk, The Aesthetics of Mended Japanese Ceramics,
available here.
Hideyoshi. He was known to loose his temper quickly and easily. The servants had to be trained to calm him down and pick up his many messes.The day our story starts was the day of a magnificent tea party. The procedure of serving tea was completed, as always, preciesly and accurately to avoid angering the emperor. Several of the emperor's guests came bearing gifts to honor his name. One gift was a bowl.
As the procedure went, the gifts were to be passed down a long line of people. The bowl was well glazed(as the leader only accepted bowls made by masters), so the surface was slippery to hold. One of the many people passing the bowl lost hold, and the bowl shattered into 5 pieces.
The Hideyoshi was furious! Just as he was about to dishonor the guest and thrust him from his home, a wise man spoke up. He was a quick thinker(maybe you know some one like this), and made up a poem about the bowl on the spot. The poem was a clever linking of the Hideyoshi's name, and the bowl type with a verse pattern like the ones in Tales of Ise.
Became split into five
Alas for that well-deep bowl
All of the blame –
It seems to have been mine.
The Hideuoshi soon relized he was over reacting, and soon began laughing at the man's quick action. He than forgave the unlucky guest who dropped the bowl and had the finest crafts man mend the bowl with gold, to show off its cracks and to remember its story.
To this day, repairing bowl's with gold is a popular art, and the broken bowl is of great cultural importance.
See a more complete version of this legend in A Teardrop View of Mended Ceramics essay in Flickwerk, The Aesthetics of Mended Japanese Ceramics,
available here.