Tea Bowl with Autumn Grasses 1800 - 1849

Nin’ami Dōhachi crafted this tea bowl with autumn grasses, a humble yet profound vessel. Autumn grasses, or aki-no-kusa, are not merely decorative; they are laden with cultural significance in Japan, evoking the transient beauty of nature and the poignant awareness of time’s passage. We find echoes of these ephemeral flora in earlier Chinese landscape paintings, where grasses often symbolize reclusion and a harmonious existence with nature. Yet, here, the motif is distilled, refined onto the surface of a tea bowl. Consider how, over centuries, this imagery has traveled, adapting to new cultural landscapes, each time imbued with fresh emotional resonance. The act of sharing tea becomes a ritual, a contemplation on life’s fleeting moments. The bowl isn't just a container, but a symbol laden with the weight of cultural memory, whispering tales of seasons past and futures yet to bloom.