Just as so many things about Japanese items, Raku is more than just the name of a type of pottery that is used to make bowls. Instead, the significance of this one name stretches from a scientific process, disciplined art, and traditional ideal.

Over the years, Raku Japanese bowls have gained renown for being the type of bowls that are used during the Japanese tea ceremony, or chanoyu. As the ceremony itself is a perfected art, so too are the Japanese bowls used in them, which should give you a rough idea of the prestige enjoyed by Raku bowls.

Of course, these Japanese bowls are employed for other uses too, and the techniques for the creation of Raku bowls have been adopted, and adapted, by many Western potters.

As a result, today Raku bowls can be found in many varieties, though their glazed clay finish remains constant throughout. Unlike antique Japanese bowls of this type, more intricate patterns, and even colors are now incorporated into the Raku designs.

For something that can trace its roots through the ages and into antiquity itself, Raku Japanese bowls represent an ancient art that has transcended time itself, and still exists in a practical form.

A fragment of the past that has retained its beauty to this very day.