Aesthetics of Chanoyu – Japanese art of tea – to be explored at Kyoto National Museum

Kyoto National Museum is now running a special exhibition to appreciate the culture and aesthetics of chanoyu (Japanese tea ceremony or art of tea). Entitled, “Chanoyu: Tea in the Cultural Life of Kyoto,” the exhibition will run through Dec. 4.

The exhibition will not only feature masterpiece tea bowls, teapots and other utensils associated with Kyoto, where chanoyu flourished, but also paintings and calligraphy that tell of its culture (245 works in total, including 101 items registered as either a national treasure or an important cultural property).

Chanoyu: Tea in the Cultural Life of Kyoto

Oct 8 (Sat) – Dec 4 (Sun), 2022

Kyoto National Museum
(Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto)

*See outline below for more info

The items on display include “Yohen tenmoku” (Southern Song Dynasty, 12th-13th century) of Daitoku-ji temple’s Ryoko-in subtemple in Kyoto — a government-designated national treasure and one of only a few Yohen tenmoku tea bowls remaining in the world (only three remain in Japan) — and an O-ido type tea bowl known as “Kizaemon,” a designated national treasure from Daitoku-ji’s Koho-an subtemple.

The ido type tea bowls, introduced to Japan from the Korean Peninsula, were utensils prized by those who practiced the simple wabi-cha style ceremonies associated with tea master Senno no Rikyu (1522-91).

The special exhibition, organized by Japan’s national daily newspaper The Yomiuri Shimbun and others, is held to mark the 70th anniversary of the first publication of the Osaka edition of the paper. The exhibition is also supported by the Tsumugu Project, a joint effort by the Cultural Affairs Agency, the Imperial Household Agency and The Yomiuri Shimbun to promote and help preserve Japan’s artistic treasures.

Exhibition website:

• Chanoyu: Tea in the Cultural Life of Kyoto