Karamono (Chinese Things): Authenticity, Legitimacy and Mimetics in the Production and Use of Chinese-inspired Japanese Ceramic Tea Utensils, Past and Present

In chanoyu tea ceremony (茶湯) in particular, the Japanese term karamono (唐物) has been used since at least the 8th Century to designate ceramic and laquerware tea utensils, calligraphic scrolls, paintings, and textiles circulating in Japanese society, which are nominally of Chinese origin.   

The Japanese fascination with the exoticism and prestige of Chinese culture found its expression in the Japanese idea of karamono, as distinct from wamono (和物) or Japanese objects, and in particular with tea ceremony utensils.   However, this appeal to the Chinese cultural tradition is neither straightforwardly emulative or venerative, but rather is the deliberatively manipulated, appropriated and contested deployment of a nominally Chinese ceramic tradition for distinctly Japanese ends, and which has resulted in a distinctively Japanese sense of ‘authenticity'.   

From the Muramachi Period (1334-1573) onwards, many karamono were not produced in China at all, but came from Korea, Japan or elsewhere. In the present day, many contemporary Japanese potters sell their pots globally, basing their appeal at least in part to claims of authenticity, legitimacy and tradition rooted notionally in the timelessness and purity of production methods.   

Connoisseurship and expert gaze directed at the manufacture, display and use of Sino-Japanese woodfired ceramic chadōgu ( 茶道具 - utensils for tea ceremony) reveal the central place of claims to authenticity in substantiating seemingly unrelated assertions of legitimacy to specific forms of status, power and agency in other social spheres, and of the particular words used in Japanese to describe the authentic. 

This paper will look at contemporary Japanese concepts of authenticity as they arose from a tradition of collecting and displaying Chinese ceramics dating from at least the 15th century, when tea emerged as an elaborate social ritual within warrior pursuits.  The “love for Chinese things” or karamono suki (唐物数奇) emerged as part of the development of chanoyu, which is itself central to the developments in 20th century ceramics and the contemporary emergence of Japanese ceramics on a global stage, a small part of which is embodied in the Oxford Anagama (Japanese Kilns) Project at the University of Oxford, which forms the seed from which this research springs. 

The term suki (数寄) means an aesthetic liking, particularly for elegant things, notably poetry and tea ceremony practice. More specifically, suki is a liking tinged with an unworldly eccentricity for seemingly spontaneous and natural, but in fact carefully contrived, objects such as Bizenyaki (備前焼) and Oribeyaki (織部焼) ceramics.  

Wabi (わび) is the term most often used to exemplify orderliness, simplicity, and aesthetic appreciation.  The suki aesthetic uses highly contrived imperfection to achieve the imperfect, seemingly authentically natural beauty of wabi.  Thus ceramics that appear spontaneous or perhaps display simple natural ash-glaze finishes result from a rigorous and carefully codified selection and refinement of techniques. The same effect of artificial simplicity is sought by the wabi-style of chanoyu, which again is a highly contrived ritual manipulation of utensils in what is essentially a simple manner of making tea. 

Understanding claims rooted in a Chinese cultural legacy, and encoded in wabi-style ceramics and their use, helps us to understand the distinctively Japanese nuanced approach to authenticity, exemplified in preferred terms such as kakujitsu (確実) – certainty, reliability, soundness, shinsei (真正) – truth, genuineness, correctness; or shinzubeku (信ずべく) – truth, belief, faith – which are often used in place of the less nuanced word honmono (本物の) which simply means ‘real' or ‘original'.  

Further questions may be directed to: robin.wilson@admin.ox.ac.uk