The practice of tea drinking spread from China to Japan in the 9th century. By the Southern Song period, Chinese tea bowls like this were collected and admired in Japan, where they were called ‘temmoku’ bowls after the Japanese pronunciation of the famous tea producing Tianmu mountains. The iron–brown streaked pattern on the interior is often likened to ‘hare’s fur’.
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late Ming dynasty (1368–1644)–early Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
