Raku Tenmoku Simple And Incredibly Complex

“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you!
Behold how much I love you, 
I have engraved you on the palms of my hands!”
Isaiah 49:15-16

The story is both simple and incredibly complex.  

In the mid-Sixteenth Century, the Japanese tea master Sen Rikyu (1522-1591) created raku tenmoku cups - small and perfectly-sized to fit the palm of a hand, made without a pottery wheel and with imperfections consistent with the wabi-sabi aesthetic, which was one of impermanence and imperfection and designed to inspire deep senses of serene melancholy and beauty. This rustic style called for an acceptance of uniqueness and flaws, without alteration or hiding. It was designed to provoke inner serenity, the acceptance of Self and the Other. 

Ashikaga Yoshimasa was the eighth shogun of the Muromachi period, named after the Muromachi district of Kyoto, and his family dominated Japanese politics and history from 1338 to 1568. Somewhat unhappily but fortuitously, Ashikaga had little aptitude for the politics of the shogunate preferring to dedicate himself to the development of the “Culture of the Eastern Mountain” movement. 

All of this resulted in internecine conflicts over succession when Ashikaga adopted his own brother – making him his successor – a year before his wife gave birth to a son, creating a conflict between uncle and nephew with wife and mother stirring the pot. The result was a ten-year war (1467-1477) that resulted in extensive destruction of Kyoto and its many temples. The Onin War eventually involved a significant number of military clans and almost every region of Japan, becoming known as the “Warring States Period.” 

Ashikaga Yoshimasa abdicated in favor of his son in 1473 and dedicated himself to art, literature and poetry, introducing the art of ikebana (flower arranging) and, with the assistance of the Zen monk Murata Shuko, developing the first dojinsai (tea room). Ultimately, Ashikaga Yoshimasa’s influence gave rise to the development of profoundly Zen influences in Japanese art and culture. 

The journey of the Zen monks is a journey made of questions without answer, of contradictions and inconsistencies: there isn’t certainty even of nothingness and only death is the real nothingness. 

Japanese arts and culture are deeply influenced by the Zen doctrine: every creation expresses the deepest Self; it’s [sic] intimate connection to nature and is a lesson and a testimony for the others. From the Zen perspective a piece of work should never be finished, but should leave room for the interpretation of those who look at it, in order to fulfill themselves in it. An accomplishment that is never static, but brings the infinite with it.
Chiara Lorenzetti. Kintsugi: The Art of Repairing With Gold.

In the tea ceremony

The cup has an important symbolic role…, it is shown by the tea master before pouring the tea and then after the host drank it, the latter examines it, praises it, asks for information about the maker, the material and the decorations.
Chiara Lorenzetti

Beginning around the year 1480, the cup used in the tea ceremony took on greater and greater importance. It was not made with a pottery wheel but by placing overlapping handcrafted coils of clay, a technique called raku – meaning “comfortable” and “handy” because the cup is designed to fit comfortably in the palm of the hand. 

The dedication of the Japanese ceramic masters gave an almost spiritual dynamic to the creation of raku tenmoku cups – small, dark colored and with imperfections. 

The mythology tells us that Ashikaga Yoshima accidentally broke one of his most cherished cups and asked Chinese ceramists for help in repairing it. By tradition, the efforts were less than successful (and possibly downright ugly). Ashikaga then turned to Japanese artisans because they were more sensitive to the innate beauty of his cup. The Japanese craftsmen joined the broken pieces using urushi lacquer, derived from the sap of the Toxicodendron vernicicluum plant, which had been used for centuries in lacquering wooden objects, and enriched the lacquer with gold dust – producing a precious tenmoku cup that delighted the eighth shogun of the Muromachi period. Yoshimasa truly loved it. 

“Like a precious jewel, the ceramics repaired with the Kintsugi technique become real pieces of art. Enriching them with gold dust highlights their beauty and richness, transforming the fragility into an added value… it is a very long process, difficult and expensive… The passing of time is not a pain but a mandatory step to reaching serenity, even if cloaked in melancholy.”
Chiara Lorenzetti

The word of the Lord came to me, saying
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, 
and before you were born I set you apart…”
Jeremiah 1:4

Part of the wonder of Ashikaga Yoshima’s teacup was how perfectly it fit into the palm of his hand. With its contents properly heated and flavored, when ceremoniously presented it gave a sense of satisfaction – of emotional, physical, spiritual pleasure – that penetrated deep into the core of his being. 

And it slipped.

It shattered.

It was broken.

The shogun’s pain at that seeming loss – at that brokenness - was so great that he figuratively went to the far corners of his earth – searching for a means to repair it, entrusting the fragments to the care of Chinese artisans, who pieced it together with metal braces. A solution hardly acceptable for such a beloved object.

As so often happens in the mystery of the Human Experience, Ashikaga Yoshima’s beloved cup came to its full glory only when it came closer to home – closer to its Creator. When – with the grace of God – it was restored – not to its original beauty, but to a beauty beyond anyone’s hopes or expectations. 

On occasion, I have been asked to speak with psychologists-in-training about what I do, how I do therapy. While I encourage future counselors to spend years reading history and classic novels, to master one or two theories and techniques of counseling that are meaningful to them and consistent with their personalities, and get in some years of experience before they dare to do counseling in their own particular “way,” I also break the mold by saying that I pray for my clients. During my morning workout, I review my caseload and pray for specific clients. At the end of the day, I repeat the process.  

I rarely tell clients that I pray for them, but when I do, they know I mean it. 

And, when I reach that point where all of my studies and skills, experience and prayers have not worked and I’m at the end of my rope, I call the cloistered Maryknoll Sisters – the Maryknoll Contemplative Community - to give them the client’s name and ask them to pray for him or her and for me. 

Print will never allow us to convey the strength, quiet calm and absolute confidence of the Sister on the other end of the line who will almost always responding by instructing me:

“Tell her we place her in the heart of God.” 

“Tell him we place him in the heart of God.” 

“Tell her we place her in the heart of Jesus.” 

“Tell him we place him in the Heart of Jesus.” 

“Tell him we place him in the broken heart of God and there he will be fired, and formed, and strengthened, and made beautiful.” 

“Tell her we place her in the broken heart of Jesus and there she will be fired, and formed, and strengthened, and made beautiful.” 

During these Hope-celebrating days of Chanukah and Advent’s anticipation of the Christmas Miracle, let us rededicate ourselves to comforting the fearful, to restoring the battle weary and strengthening the spirits of our war-shattered communities and world. To confronting the prejudices of antisemitism, Islamophobia and hatred and not simply to renew but to make more precious and valued the shattered souls that are the wonder of Creation and Creation’s Creator.

Let us prepare to greet the New Year with a beauty that can only come from and through our brokenness – to make our personal and shared brokenness beautiful. To fire our own and others’ brokenness to a beauty beyond our hopes and expectations. 

During these Hope-celebrating days of Chanukah and the anticipation of the Christmas Miracle let us find rest in the palms of God’s hands.