The Tea Ceremony

This term is generically given to pieces imported from the Continent (ÔkaraÕ). Large amounts of vessels, as well as books, etc, had been brought over since Kamakura days, but it was in Muromachi that their status reached its peak. The Muromachi shogunate employed connoisseurs for their art, known as doboshu, the most famous of whom is Noami. He wrote a catalogue of the shogunal collection, in which he discussed how to decorate a room with karamono. His writings were essential reading for all art lovers of the period.
Murata Juko began the wabi tea movement, and used term karamono to refer only to imported tea items. He divided these by shape (elongated, tall, round, etc) and used karamono at only some of his tea gatherings, which he called Ôkaramono sessionsÕ. This was on fact the beginning of the marginalisation and displacement of karamono, in favour of a quieter aesthetic and locally made vessels. Juko was not alone in giving attention to non-imported items. In an extant letter, he wrote that the point of tea was to overcome the Japan/Continent polarity. Juko preferred vessels made in Shigaraki, which produced simples pieces for daily use, and he invented the concept of Ôchill and witheredÕ beauty. This was in opposition to the taste of karamono, and perhaps represents a kind of incipient nationalism.