AREThe Festival: Japanese Ceramics and the Way of Tea - 5 November 2017

AREThé Festival: Japanese Ceramics and the Way of Tea – 5 November 10am-5pm.

A study day celebrating Japanese ceramics and tea culture from talks, throwing demonstrations and Tea Ceremony in the Ashmolean to Raky Firing and Anagama Kilm opening at Wytham Woods (bus transport provided). With an evening reception at Oxford Ceramics Gallery.

The programme of events is supported by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation and the Great-Britain Sasakawa Foundation.

The preparation and drinking of tea in a formal ‘ceremony’ is known in Japan as chanoyu (‘hot water for tea’) or chad (‘the way of tea’). A tea gathering is, essentially, an act of hospitality, in which guests have a chance to withdraw from the stresses of daily life to enjoy a bowl of tea in the peaceful setting of a tea room made of simple, natural materials. It has been practised in various forms in Japan since the 1400s and is thriving to this day. This autumn the Ashmolean Museum and Oxford Anagama Project will be organizing a series of events to spotlight the world of contemporary Japanese tea and the arts that it inspires. These events will be part of the international AREThé Festival, established in Paris in 2016 to explore Japanese art through the way of tea (the name AREthé combines ‘art’ and ‘tea’).

In October, Bizen potter and experienced kiln-builder Takikawa Takuma travelled from Bizen to join the Oxford Anagama team to build and fire a new anagama test kiln in Wytham Woods, alongside the two anagama kilns created in 2015 and 2016. He will be joined in November by leading Koishiwara ceramicist Onimaru Hekizan II, highly regarded for his contemporary take on traditional tea utensils. From October until January a special display of contemporary tea wares by leading Japanese artists (and including works fired in the Oxford anagama) will be held in the Ashmolean’s Japanese galleries. The Festival will culminate on 5 November in a day of talks and demonstrations, starting at the Ashmolean Museum, moving on to Wytham Woods and finishing back at the Oxford Ceramics Gallery.

AREThé Festival event: Japanese ceramics and the way of tea

Sunday 5 November, 10am – 5pm, Lecture Theatre, Gallery 36 and Wytham Woods
5-7pm Oxford Ceramics Gallery
To accompany a special display of contemporary Japanese tea wares, Gallery 36

10.30 – 11am Discovering contemporary Japanese art through the way of
tea
Talk with Mika Obata, gallery owner

11.00 – 11.20am What’s happening at the Oxford Anagama Project
Talk with Robin Wilson

11.30am – 12.45pm Talk and demonstration of traditional Takatori-style ‘kirei
sabi’ throwing techniques
By ceramicist Onimaru Hekizan II

12.45 – 2pm Tea demonstrations in the Ashmolean’s tea house (continuous)

2.00pm Coach to Wytham Woods for unloading of the new anagama kiln
and British Raku kiln fi ring

4.30pm Coach returns to Ashmolean

5 – 7pm Special evening viewing of ‘Sake’ exhibition at Oxford Ceramics
Gallery

Booking & info:

https://www.facebook.com/OxfordAnagama/

http://www.ashmolean.org/event/arethe-festival-japanese-ceramics-and-way-tea

£35/£30 Concessions

AREThé Festival PDF