Analysis and Replication of Jianyang Tea Bowls from Song Dynasty China

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Analysis and Replication of Jianyang Tea Bowls from Song Dynasty China James D. Morehead1 and Pamela B. Vandiver1 1

Department of Materials Science and Engineering Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85750 USA

ABSTRACT Black-glazed tea bowls from the Jian area of Fujian province, China, were analyzed to understand the physical basis of their visual appearance and the special glaze effects of nucleation, crystal growth, control of glaze flow, and hare’s fur and spotted patterns that have frustrated modern and ancient factories that are unable to produce acceptable replicas. The black-glazed Jian bowls are divided into two distinct groups called “Hare’s Fur” and “Oil Spot”. Black glazes and bodies from the Jian kilns are rich in iron and calcium oxides, made from a plentiful local refractory dark red clay, and fired in hill-climbing dragon kilns. Twenty-six sherds were analyzed from the collection made by James Plumer at the kiln site in 1935 [1]. Analyses were conducted using optical microscopy, Xeroradiography, scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS) and electron microprobe analysis (WDS), and petrographic thin section analysis to reverse engineer some of the microstructure, composition and thermal history of Jian ware. INTRODUCTION The name Jianyang refers to the Jian county of Fujian province, China, where the tea bowls were produced at 28 or more workshop and kiln sites. These tea bowls are also referred to as” temmoku”. The name derives from the fact that during the Song Dynasty (ca. 960-1279) Japanese Buddhist priests made pilgrimages to a temple on Mt. Temmoku (Tian mu shan) in the north-eastern part of the Zhejiang Province and brought back with them the Jianyang bowls to Japan. The kiln complex, Jian-yao, in Fujian is said to have originated in the early Song dynasty (960-1279 CE), and its production was active throughout the Song and the Yuan (1271-1368 CE) dynasties [2]. Two distinct groups of Jianyang tea bowls were investigated in this study: oil spot (OS), which is either a black glaze with bright white or golden crystals or a red under-fired glaze with black specks, and hare’s fur (HF), which is a black glaze with streaks of white, gold, red, brown or orange-brown [3]. Another rare Jian type is called “yohen temmoku” and samples were not available for this study. The first technical study of this ceramic was conducted by Yamasaki in 1985 [2]; he reported crystals that appear to almost float in a liquid and crystalline pool of glaze that formed at the surface of the glaze. EXPERIMENTAL METHODS Twenty-Six bowl sherds were provided by Frederick Matson from the James Plumer collection made by Mr. Plumer who traveled to Fujian to search for the Jian kilns during the

spring of 1935[1,3]. He found one marked “guan,” or official, and established that the bowls were conveyed to the imperial court from Jian kilns, further confirming literary accounts of the high value of the bowls. Literary accounts describe their use for serving green tea. The experiments detailed in this paper consist of a series