More on Tea Ceremony and Luzon Jars

In order to further investigate the uniquely high value of Luzon Jars in Japan, we can explore deeper into the philosophy of Chanoyu or Tea Ceremony, which is known as the Way of Tea (Chado).

As noted earlier, there are to my knowledge only brief notes that explain the value of Luzon Jars in terms of their unique properties in preserving tea -- properties that are sometimes described in magical terms. However, I have also explored the possible spiritual and philosophical background that could have added to the great price tags placed on these wares.

Tea was used by Ch'an Buddhists in China to help them stay awake during meditation practice. Tradition states that Eisai, a Zen master, first brought tea from China to Japan in the 12th century. However it was not until 15th century that we see something similar to the modern tea ceremony when it was introduced by Zen monk Murata Shuko.

Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591) developed much of the basis of Chado, the philosophy behind the tea ceremony. Chado combines elements of Zen, Taoism and Shintoism.

The tea ceremony is a spiritual practice that encourages social interaction together with appreciation and contemplation of the simple and austere aesthetic. The ritual restored and renewed the spirit bringing inner peace and intimacy with other participants.

In Taoism, renewal takes place during the jiao ritual during the opening of temples or at regular 12 year intervals. Renewal, both spiritual and physical, is also a goal of Taoist alchemy.

Shinto belief in renewal is seen in the process of periodic rebuilding of structures. The Ise Temple, for example, is rebuilt from scratch every 20 years. A similar rebuilding practice is used with ancestral origin houses in Southeast Asia and New Guinea -- a process made easily possible by the use of wood architecture.

The tea-room or Sukiya was designed to be simple and clean -- an Abode of Vacancy. "The tea-room (the Sukiya) does not pretend to be other than a mere cottage — a straw hut, as we call it," wrote Kazuko Okakura in "The Book of Tea." And it was also ephemeral and individualistic. The Sukiya is rebuilt again and again.

Between the portico, where guests arrive, and the tea-room is a tea garden. Of special interest is the "paradise garden" known as shima "island" after the three Taoist isles of the blest. In Chinese these were known as Penglai, Fangchang and Yingchou, while in Japan they were called respectively Horai, Hojo and Eishu. Sometimes a third island known as Koryo was added. In Chinese, these islands were known as Sandao 三島 "Three Islands."

Taoism's utopia provided the right milieu for those entering into the tea-room. The isles were known for their natural beauty and harmony and for the happy, long lives of its inhabitants -- a good recipe for contemplation and socialization. Paradise was also linked with renewal and restoration as tea-lovers made a New Year's Day decoration called "Horai," after the mountain of the immortals consisting of a pile of seafood, fruit and vegetables. According to the daimyo Kiyomasa, the ideal New Year's beverage known as toso should be made from a waterfall in Horai.


Period of Luzon Jar trade

Arai Hakuseki's narrative on the captivity of Pere Sidotti written in 1710 suggests that Luzon Jars were imported into Japan as early as the Sung and Yuan dynasties. Definitely it appears that these wares were in use during the early Muromachi period (1334—1467) and sometime between between 1385 and 1440 such pots were imported into Okinawa and the pottery-making techniques were copied to produce them locally.

During the Yuan dynasty, the traveler Wang Dayuan mentions a location south of Taiwan and north of Mindoro and Butuan known as Sandao 三島 "Three Islands." The old empire of Sanfotsi mysteriously vanishes during Yuan times, but was in the same general location.

Y. Tanaka in Tokiko (1854) states that Luzon was part of a geographical region known as Mishima 三島 由 "Three Islands." Notice that the first two characters of Sandao and Mishima are the same, with the last character added to Mishima to provide the last syllable of shima "island." Mishima is thus a Japanese translation of Sandao. While I do not know whether this Sandao or Mishima were ever explicitly equated with the Taoist paradise isles, there is an interesting earlier notice that has some bearing.

In 1067, Ssuma Kuang (Sima Guang) locates the kingdom of Fusang west of the Weilu Current i.e., the southeastern origin of the Kuroshio Current, a location that largely agrees with that of Sandao and Mishima. As I have noted before, many Chinese texts basically equate Fusang with Penglai, the paradise island known in Japanese as Horai. Also, Japanese texts may do the same as suggested by ethnographer Yanagita Kunio.

As discussed earlier in this blog, the Chinese linked Sandao, the isles of the immortals, with a special type of jar known as hu 壺 that were used in sacred wine rituals during the Shang Dynasty. Wine became less popular after the Shang, but the rituals continued on in some circles and they were also preserved in the Taoist literature. The immortals who lived in Sandao were themselves known as avid drinkers. The islse were so connected with the hu jar that they were often visualized as resembling the jar in shape and possessed alternate names with "-hu" added as a suffix.

Japan also had its own Shinto tradition of sacred jars. These were used in the ancient ritual of tasting the new rice during the harvest festival. Interestingly a somewhat similar ritual was used by the Shogun during the season of new tea. Jars were also used for the Shinto rice wine ritual known as naorai.

So, we can surmise that if Mishima did indeed represent the three isles of the immortals with Luzon as Horai, then the ancient jars from that land would have indeed made appropriate vessels for the sacred tea ceremony. They would have brought great prestige to the owners as they possessed all the classic linkages. Luzon Jars could be viewed then as a type of "Holy Grail" of the tea ceremony connected, as it would have been thought, with the historical paradise lands found in both Shinto and Taoist belief. So it comes as no surprise that during the time of the Spanish governor Antonio de Morga in the 17th century, that Japanese merchants were willing to pay fantastic sums for old pots that seemingly had no worth to the European.

Apparently though they had lost their worth in Luzon itself. They must have at one time been handed down as heirlooms as they were preserved by the people mostly as relics. In Pampanga, they were known by the name of the local sand, balas, that was used as temper during the firing process. These balasini were very rare but apparently still in existence during Bergano's time in the 18th century, so it could be that some people still valued them enough to preserve them as part of their inheritance.

Wang Dayuan writes that merchants from Santao frequently visited the ports of South China during the Yuan Dynasty, and in the early years of the Ming Dynasty we hear that the kingdom of Luzon sent an envoy to Okinawa. I have argued that earlier kings from this region followed a policy of attraction in their quest to guard the trade routes. Could the hyping and selling of the once-sacred balasini constitute a new twist in that age-old game?

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Kōdansha. Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, Tokyo: Kodansha, 1983, 111.

Okakura, Kakuzō, and Sōshitsu Sen. The Book of Tea, Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2005.

Sasaki, Sanmi, Shaun McCabe, and Iwasaki Satoko. Chado: the way of tea : a Japanese tea master's almanac / Sasaki Sanmi ; translated from the Japanese by Shaun McCabe and Iwasaki Satoko ; foreword by Sen Sôshitsu XV, Boston: Tuttle, 2005.

The sacred hu 壺 vessels

The hu 壺 vessel was a ritual drinking container for wine and water used from at least Shang dynasty times. Vessels similar to the Hu jars date back to Neolithic times, and during latter periods there were earthenware, laquerware and bronze hu.

Hu vessels were somewhat gourd-like in shape and the original word hu 壺 means "gourd."

According to Liezi (4th century BCE), one of the three islands of the blessed was shaped like a hu with a square mouth. Starting in the Han dynasty, we see the production of boshanlu censers and jars meant to represent mountains on the three paradise islands of the southeastern seas. These mountains were Peng-hu on the island of Peng-lai, Fang-hu on Fang-chang, and Ying-hu on Ying-chou. Notice the "-hu" element in all these names.

The hu mountains were conceived as resembling hu jars in shape and with open mouths at the top.

On one of the mountains represented on the boshanlu, known as the "Mountain without peer," a hole was placed on top to allow smoke to rise from the peak. The smoke symbolized the "cinnabar furnace" that was supposed to exist within this mountain creating the elixir of immortality.

From this elixir, the Qin emperor was advised to create vessels of transmuted gold, with the help of beings from Peng-lai, that would convey long life. I have suggested that this "transmuted gold" is alchemical jargon for the clay of said vessels that was thought to have special properties. This clay was the elixir or philosopher's stone that originated from the cinnabar furnace of Peng-hu in the seas to the southeast.

In this same region, the dog deity or ancestor known as Pan-hu was also placed by ancient Chinese texts. The "hu" in Pan-hu's name again means "gourd" and Pan-hu was known as "emperor of the center" apparently a reference to the idea that this region was the center of the earth. From this center one gained entrance to Heaven through the axis mundi. Chinese cosmological texts sometimes identify Pan-hu with the primoridial dumpling from which cosmos was created. The southern peoples, whom the Chinese called Man, linked Pan-hu with the primordial gourd sometimes said to have carried the first ancestors. This gourd or dumpling was represented in microcosm by the hu-like mountain at the center of the world in Peng-lai.

Interestingly in royal Shang tombs of the cross (ya) shape variety, a dog is buried in the center of the tomb, the location possibly representing the entrance to Heaven. In Chinese astrology, the dog is also associated with the gate of Heaven. Earlier I have written that the dog guardian represented the royal lineage entrusted as custodians of the sacred volcanoes.

So the central mountain, or Peng-hu was seen as the axis mundi and as a crucible for the creation of the elixir. Indeed, the Chinese alchemist Wei-Po Yang called the pot, used in latter practices to make an artificial form of elixir, by the name Peng-hu after the mountain on Peng-lai. Chinese texts describe the hu mountains as containing the "Sun and Moon" an imagery that we have linked in this blog with the idea of a volcanic eruption. It was this eruption that produced the "elixir" i.e. the volcanic ash that later weathered into clay used to make sacred vessels of longevity.

Bird and sun-moon motif on jade ring from Liangzhu Culture (3500 BCE-2250 BCE), left, bird on cartouche and sun-moon on bi disc, Liangzhu. The sun-moon motif, in one case combined with what could be a 'fire mountain' motif appear also on Ling-yang-ho vases (4300 BCE-1900 BCE) from Shangdong, source: Wu Hung, "Bird Motifs in Eastern Yi Art." I have interpreted "crescent sun" motif as a symbol of a great Neolithic volcanic eruption that occurred centrally along the routes of the Nusantao maritime trade and communication network. The turbulent volcanic islands beyond the southeastern coast were also linked with the "Mulberry Fields" that were said to periodically rise above the sea, possibly an allusion to the still significant sea level changes in this region that continued well into the Middle Neolithic period.

Hu vessels and the Luzon jars

Japanese merchants called the region from which they purchased the fabled Luzon jars by the name Mishima "Three Islands" referring specifically to Luzon, Formosa and an unidentified island known as Amakawa, possibly Macau. I have not found anything yet to link these three islands specifically with the three islands of the blessed in Chinese literature, and there are other areas known as "Mishima" in both ancient and modern Japan. There is a Mishima mentioned in the ancient epic Kojiki, for example. However, interestingly one type of important pot brought back from Mishima was known in Japanese as tsubo, specifically the Ruson-tsubo "Luzon jar."

Tsubo in Japanese kanji script is represented by the character 壺 i.e., the same one that represents hu in Chinese.

While the Chinese appear to have lost at an early date the linkage of the clay as the sacred element of the hu jars, they nonetheless preserved the ideas surrounding the production of the "elixir" used to make these vessels. In Southeast Asia and Japan, the idea that the sacred jars drew their powers from the special clay with which they were made had survived.

And I have suggested that this was known as the clay of the Sun and Moon, taken from the dual volcanoes -- the mountain of Aldo (Sun) known as Arayat, and the mountain of Bulan (Moon) known as Pinatubo, and used to make the highly-valued Ruson-tsubo (Luzon Jars).

I have resided all my life between Heaven and Earth, with my constant residence in the Penglai Isles. I rely on the sun, moon, and stars to aid my life, and on the Five Pneumata to complete my body. I have received the Dao methods transmitted by the Lord Lao and have become enlightened to the Mysterious Perfection. By day I travel on simurghs and cranes to the Penglai Isles, at night I fly on clouds to stay at the immortals' pavilions. I honor the lords of the South Pole and the Eastern Florescence as my landlords, and the Northern Dipper and the Western Mother as my neighbors.

-- The Story of Han Xiangzi (17th century)

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

White, David Gordon. The Alchemical. Body: Siddha Traditions In Medieval India. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1997.

Stein, Rolf A., Phyllis Brooks (translator). The World in Miniature: Container Gardens and Dwellings in Far Eastern Religious Thought, Stanford, Calif., 1990.

Yang Erzeng; Philip Clart (translator). The Story of Han Xiangzi: The Alchemical Adventures of a Daoist Immortal. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2008, 238.

More on Luzon Jars

I have received some comments in correspondence as to whether the value of Luzon jars in Japan (known as Ruson-tsubo) might be due just to their antique and practical value rather than to any sacred valuation.

As I have noted previously in this blog, the Japanese had an old mythological tradition of jar worship going back to the epics Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. Jars were associated with food production even before rice agriculture, something that may hearken back to Jomon times. The jar sacrifices and festivals were instituted by Jimmu and linked with the far-off fairyland Takamagahara.

Evidence that the Luzon jars, used in the tea ceremony (chanoyu) since at least the early Muromachi period (1334—1467), were considered sacred may first appear, in European sources at least, in the notices of Carletti during the 1590s.

In describing the Luzon jars in Japan, Carletti noted that "the king of this Japan and all the other princes of the region have an infinite number of these vases, which they regard as their principal treasures, esteeming them more than anything else of value."

Referring to tea or cha, Carletti has this to say about their relationship with the Luzon jars.

But to return to the aforesaid cha, besides the many special properties that they attribute to it, they say that the older the leaf the better it is. But they have great difficulty in preserving it for a long period and keeping it in prime condition, as they do not find containers, not even of gold or silver or other metals, which are good for this purpose. It seems a superstition, and yet it is true, that cha is preserved well only in the aforesaid vessels made simply of a clay that has this virtue...

Carletti notes that the Japanese consideration of the old and homely Luzon jars seemed beyond reason and linked with some superstitious or supernatural belief in the clay used to make the vessels. In Appleton's Journal (1875), a description is given of the tea ceremony and the imperial tea utensils, which further accentuates these beliefs:

Clothed in light, white garments, and without weapons, the members of the Cha-no- yu assemble round the master's house, and, after resting some time in the anteroom, are conducted into a pavilion appropriated exclusively to these assemblies. This consists of the most costly kinds of wood, but is without any ornament which could possibly be abstracted from it ; without color, and without varnish, dimly lighted by small windows thickly overgrown with plants, and so low that it is impossible to stand upright. The guests tread the apartment with solemn, measured steps, and, having been received by the host according to the prescribed formulas, arrange themselves in a half-circle on both sides of him. All distinctions of rank are abolished. The ancient vessels are now removed with solemn ceremonies from their wrappings, saluted, and admired ; and, with the same solemn and rigidly-prescribed formulas, the water is heated on the hearth appropriated to the purpose, and the tea taken from the vessels and prepared in cups. The tea consists of the young, green leaves of the tea-shrub rubbed to powder, and is very stimulating in its effect. The beverage is taken amid' deep silence, while incense is burning on the elevated pedestal of honor, toko; and, after the thoughts have thus been collected, conversation begins. It is confined to abstract subjects ; but politics are not always excluded. Many of these old jars, wrapped in costly silken folds, and preserved in chests lacquered with gold, are preserved among the treasures of the Mikado with all the care due to the most costly jewels, together with documents relating to their history. Those coming from the Philippine Islands are said to surpass all others in value, from some distinctive virtue supposed to be imparted by their material to the tea.

Quite obvious from this description is that the tea vessels were considered sacra, sacred traditional objects, and that the material (clay) of the ancient jars was considered to have some special quality that was imparted to the tea. It is also worth noting that the text above mentions "documents relating to their history," in reference to the old jars, something that would be worth investigating.

Previous blog posts have discussed the sacred jars in the Philippines and Borneo, where old, rude earthenware pots were so esteemed they would not be sold by the owners at any price. Since these items were in all cases ancient, they were either handed down as heirlooms, traded as antiques or discovered in ancient caches. George Windsor Earl, writing in 1837, gives a curious account of Dyaks of western Borneo who recovered such ancient sacred wares from what were apparently burial mounds.

The relics of an ancient people are also to be met with in the inland parts of the west coast, and, although the information I was enabled to collect concerning them was extremely vague, I came to the conclusion that they were a race distinct from the Hindus near Banjar Massin. These relics consist merely of tumuli, in which are sometimes found small earthern jars, and being supposed by the Dyaks to be connected in some manner with the ashes of their forefathers, are in all probability graves. The jars are very scarce, and are so highly valued by their possessors on account of their supposed oracular powers, that the offer of a sum equal to five hundred pounds sterling has been refused for one of them. The jars are consulted by their owners before they undertake any expedition, and they believe that it will be prosperous or the contrary according to the sound produced, probably by water being poured into it. I much regretted being unable to inspect one of these vessels, as their materials and manufacture might possibly throw some light upon the relation which the natives of Borneo bear to the people of some other parts of India.

The traveler Fedor Jagor also mentions in reference to Luzon jars a story from Japan of the priest Giogiboosat that also indicates a connection of sacred vessels with burial mounds.

This earthen vessel was found in the porcelain factory of Tschisuka in the province of Odori, in South Idzumi, and is an object belonging to the thousand graves ... It was made by Giogiboosat (a celebrated Buddhist priest), and after it had been consecrated to heaven was buried by him. According to the traditions of the people, this place held grave mounds with memorial stones. That is more than a thousand years ago. ... In the pursuit of my studies, I remained many years in the temple Sookuk, of that village, and found the vessel. I carried it to the high priest Shakudjo, who was much delighted therewith and always bore it about with him as a treasure. When he died it fell to me, although I could not find it. Recently, when Honkai was chief priest, I saw it again, and it was as if I had again met the spirit of Shakudjo. Great was my commotion, and I clapped my hands with astonishment ; and, as often as I look upon the treasure, I think it is a sign that the spirit of Shakudjo is returned to life. Therefore I have written the history, and taken care, of this treasure.

So, in Borneo, Japan and the Philippines, we see that jars were seen as sacred and having mystical powers and even personalities. In ancient Japanese mythology, jar deities known as Mika were animate and said to produce progeny -- beliefs similar to those found in the Philippines and Borneo. In Japan, the early jar worship was related to food production, first pre-rice agriculture and then specifically linked with rice crops. In Southeast Asia, sacred jars were considered more as storage vessels for holy water or beverages.

During some time at or before the Muromachi period, jars again take on a new sacred function as containers of tea leaves and beverage in the tea ceremony of chanoyu. That there is some link with the practice further south is strongly indicated by the fact that the Japanese sought ancient earthenware jars just for this purpose from Southeast Asia, putting great price on the value of these items. And it was the material, the clay, of which these vessels were made that was considered as granting their special sacred qualities. Previously in this blog, we have recorded how in Southeast Asia sacred jars are also linked with special divine clay.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Appletons' Journal, "Among the Philippines," Appleton's Journal vol. 14, 1875, 228.

Earl, George Windsor . The Eastern Seas: Or, Voyages and Adventures in the Indian Archipelago, in 1832-33-34, Comprising a Tour of the Island of Java -- Visits to Borneo, the Malay Peninsula, Siam ..., W. H. Allen, 1837, 274-5.

Fairchild, William P. "'Mika'-Jar Deities in Japanese Mythology," Asian Folklore Studies 34 (1965): 81-101.

Jagor, Andreas Feodor, Fedor Jagor. Travels in the Philippines, Chapman and Hall, 1875, 166-7.

Varley, Paul, Isao Kumakura, Kumakura Isao. Tea in Japan: Essays on the History of Chanoyu, University of Hawaii Press, 1994, 116-7.

Image of a Ruson-tsubo

I found this image of a ruson-tsubo, an earthenware jar from Luzon used in Japan for aging tea leaves, on Kenichi Tsunoda blog "Ken's Green Tea Salon."


Click on image for full-size version

The jar was imported in the 16th century and is made of lightweight, low density clay. The porous clay "breathes" making it ideal for tea leaf fermentation. Traditionally leaves were picked in the spring and aged until about November.

European observers in the 16th century noted that it was the 'homely' earthenware jars that were most valued often commanding outrageous prices. Luzon jars became popular in the Muromachi Period, and at least one source claims they were imported as early as Sung Dynasty times. Some of these jars were considered magical and animate in the Philippines and neighboring Borneo.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Luzon Jars (Glossary)

The Luzon pottery or Rusun-yaki, was renowned for its value in Japan, during the 16th century.

Jars have a long history of sacred and medicinal use in the region of the Philippines and Borneo.

Since Late Neolithic times at least, huge jars or urns were used in this region for primary or secondary burial. The presence of ceramic sherds at many of these burials, apparently from pots smashed during funerary rites, further highlights the spiritual importance of pottery.

Starting in the early to middle medieval period, imported Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese porcelain, sometimes of very high quality, are found along with native earthernwares in excavated burials.

To the present-day, heirloom jars, some massive in size, continue to have spiritual and prestige value among indigenous peoples in the region.

High-priced pots

Just how much they valued the sacred jars can be seen in the amount they were willing to spend on these items, or by their refusal to part with them at any price.

The sacred jar owned by the Datu of Tamparuli in Borneo, was originally sold to a merchant by a Malau chief for two tons of brass cannons, the equivalent in the mid-1800s to 230 pounds sterling. The merchant sold it to the datu for the equivalent in rice of 700 pounds sterling.

When the Sultan of Brunei was offered the equivalent of $100,000 to part with his sacred jar, he said that no offer would be sufficient. Water from the jar was believed to have special magical properties and visiting farmers from as far as the Bisayas in the Philippines were said to have come to obtain a little magic water for their fields.

For the Japanese, the Luzon jar was important because it was the only vessel capable of storing high-quality tea to their liking. From various reports, the jars also appeared to have been viewed as having medicinal and spiritual properties.

The most sensational report of one of these containers comes from Carletti, who reported that the best of the tea-canisters were valued at up to 30,000 pounds sterling, or about US $4 million in 2006 dollars. And these jars were actually used to store tea or tea leaf!

Europeans were astonished at the high amounts paid for these jars, all of which were old, the older the better, and of uncomely appearance. A similar situation was found in Borneo.

Rusun ("Luzon") Sukezaemon's story is well-known in Japan. The Sakai merchant brought back 50 Luzon jars and sold them to agents of the Shogun. He became fabulously rich and built a mansion that put the local castles to shame.

Types of jars

That the Luzon jars were made in Luzon is quite clear from the Tokiko, a work on the Namban, or Southern, ceramics trade.

The Luzon jars are marked as Rusun-tsukuru "made in Luzon" and all the jars from the south are manufactured with "Namban clay." Shogun Hideyoshi had a tsubo or pot purposely manufactured in Luzon during his reign.

Luzon pots, according to the Tokiko, were marked with symbols that relate to the native scripts of the Philippines, and jars with these markings have been found in archaeological works.

Pots (tsubo) were differentiated from the more-valued tea-canisters (cha-ire).

The Japanese were exceptional at distinguishing these pots for quality and in weeding out fakes. A similar situation was noted in Borneo where attempts in China were made, without success, to imitate the ancient wares and sell them on the local market.

The Luzon tea-canisters were of the best quality. However, European witnesses unanimously described the most valued of these vessels as earthenware. The Tokiko says of the Rusun-koroku, or Luzon ware, that it "is soft because it is not thoroughly baked."

Three types of clay were used for glazed wares: white clay which was of the best quality, yellow clay mixed with white clay and sand in the middle, and purplish-black clay was of lowest quality. All Luzon wares were marked with the wheel-mark or rokoru, a clockwise spiral.

The different types of Luzon tea-canisters described in the Tokiko are:

* Stamped with plum-blossoms with thin yellow-green glaze.
* Black-gold glaze.
* Gold glaze.
* Black glaze.
* "Tea-colored glaze and "ears."
* Green-yellow glaze.
* Yellow glaze.
* Rice kettle shape.
* Four knobs.
* Projecting bottom.
* Cleaned of extra clay with a thread (Usu-ito-giri).
* Cord marks? (Hi-tasuki)
* Candy-brown glaze.
* Monrin type.
* With ears.
* Utsumi type.
* "Eggplant" type.
* Divided lids.
* Bizen-shaped.
* Iga-shaped.
* Other types.

According to Antonio de Morga, the most valued jars sought by the Japanese were dark brown in color. Baron Alexander von Siebold confirms this and gives a more detailed description:

The best of them which I have seen were far from beautiful, simply being old, weather -worn, black or dark-brown jars, with pretty broad necks, for storing the tea in...Similar old vessels are preserved amongst the treasures of the Mikado, and the Tycoon, as well as in some of the temples, with all the care due to the most costly jewels, together with documents relating to their history.

Frank Brinkley, in the early 20th century, describes the tea ritual performed by the On-mono-chashi, the Shoguns' tea deputies who wore samurai uniforms, and fetched the "exceedingly homely jars of Luzon pottery to which the Japanese tea-clubs attached extraordinary value."

Every year the Shogun's tea-jars were carried to Uji to be filled. This proceeding was attended with extraordinary ceremonial [sic]. There were nine choice jars in the Shogun's palace, all genuine specimens of Luzon pottery, and three of these were sent each year in turn, two to be filled by the two "deputy families;" the third by the remaining nine families of On-mono-chashi. The jars were carried in solemn procession headed by a master of the tea-cult (cha-no-yu) and a "priest of tea," and accompanied by a large party of guards and attendants. In each fief through which the procession passed it received an ostentatious welcome and was sumptuously feasted. On arrival at Uji the jar, which always left Yedo fifty days before midsummer, stood for a week in a specially prepared store until every vestige of moisture had been expelled, and then, having been filled, were carried to Kyoto and there deposited for a space of one hundred days.

It's quite apparent that these are not celadons as postulated by some. The Japanese were aware of the celadons in Luzon (Rusun no seiji) which they described as shuko seiji "pearl-gray celadon," but these were different than the most valued dark-colored tea-canisters.

Europeans of the 16th century praised and imported both porcelain and celadon from the East. The communion cup of Archbiship Warham, the Lord Chancellor of England from 1504 to 1532, for example, was an imported celadon.

However, European observers of that time and afterward universally disparaged the Luzon tea-canisters. They also refer to these vessels repeatedly as earthenware.

According to the Tokiko, tea leaf kept its quality in these canisters if it touched the bottom or sides of the jar. Thus, it appears that contact with the clay was required to preserve the tea.

In Borneo and the Philippines, the sacred jars are often dated back to the first creation, and the clay is said to come from the gods.

The common division of sacred jars in Borneo mentioned by observers rates the Gusi type, a medium-sized, olive-green-colored jar with "medicinal properties" as having the highest value, followed by the Naga or "dragon jar." The latter is larger than the Gusi and is decorated with Chinese dragon figures. Last comes the Russa jar which is decorated with a representation of a type of deer.

Jars called "Gusi" also appear in the Philippines and Malaysia. They are mostly small to medium-sized but can be of many different colors. Some are stoneware, but most appear as glazed earthenware containers. A type of dark-brown Gusi known as Bergiau was found among the Sea Dayaks and was of higher value than the greenish Gusi.

Although of obvious Chinese influence, geochemical testing and other evidence suggests that dragon jars or Naga were made throughout the Southeast Asian region.

The dragon jars in the Philippines have a unique geochemical signature, but evidence shows that they also imported many dragon jars from elsewhere including the Martabans of Myanmar (Burma).

The sacred origin of the jars is a widespread motif in the region. In Ceram, pottery is one of the divine excretions of the earth goddess Hainuwele.

In Borneo, the sacred jars are made from the clay left over from the creation of the Sun and Moon by Mahatala, or his subject spirits. The Ngaju considered the vessels gifts of the gods, the fruit of the Tree of Life.

Among the Tinguian of the Philippines, the jars are also gifts, from the Sun or Sky-god Kabunian.

Jars similiar to those found in Solheim's "Bau-Malay" culture and to the Geometric Pottery of South China are still manufactured by the Kalinga of northern Luzon, to store water and wine, for fermentation, cooking and other purposes.

Possible explanations

The most prized of the Luzon wares were the locally-made tea canisters made of earthenware and dark brown or black in color marked with a spiral and native script symbols. Contact with the clay from the inside of the jar helped preserve tea. In the Philippines and Borneo, the jars had medicinal and magical properties, and could even speak to the owners and predict the future according to legend.

If we were to speculate on scientific explanations for the medicinal and preservative properties attributed to the Luzon jars, we would first suggest that the finest tea-canisters were unglazed. They belonged to the Rusun-koroku that was "not thoroughly baked" and/or to the Suyakimono or "unglazed wares," both mentioned in the Tokiko.

One of the types of Suyakimono was the Hi-tasuki, possibly marked with a cord or with a corded pattern brought out in relief, that is mentioned above as one of the Luzon tea-canister types.

Fedor Jagor tells of an artifact that he believed matched the descriptions of Luzon tea-canisters given by Antonio de Morga, the governor of the Philippines:

Morga's description suits neither the vessel of Libmanan nor the jar of the British Museum, but rather a vessel brought from Japan a short time ago to our Ethnographical Museum. This is of brown clay, small but of graceful shape, and composed of many pieces cemented together; the joints being gilt and forming a kind of network on the dark ground.

Like most other descriptions of the jars, no mention of any glaze is offered. The earthenware jars were gilded and decorated with brocade making up somewhat for their unsightly appearance.

However, the lack of glaze would explain why contact with the interior of the jar was important in preserving tea leaves. A volcanic clay with minerals like montmorillonite could have possessed the required properties, but the Rusun clay was even more unique than ordinary volcanic types.

Pinatubo volcanic deposits are very high in sulfur, an element with strong preservative properties. Sulfur is also one of the two base elements used by both Eastern and Western alchemists to divide all things into categories similar to Yin and Yang of Chinese cosmology.

Indian alchemy described the kundalini, the volcanic snake-like energy residing near the base of the spine as surrounded by a mass of sulfur.

The other element in this categorization is mercury. Sulfur and mercury are closely associated with volcanoes, fumaroles and hot springs.

Mercury mixed with other metals and then treated with sulfur produces the sulfides, among the most common types of preservatives used today. In ancient times, these sulfides were created by alchemists seeking to reproduce the Philosopher's Stone and similar products.

The Pinatubo eruptive materials are known to be particularly sulfide-rich.

Lastly, we should note that concerning the Suyakimono canisters possibly having "vermillion" cord-like relief or other types of decorations, that the Kalinga potters used carved paddles to create low relief decorations on their local manufacture jars.

Relief decoration on Kalinga pots
Source: Kalinga Ceramics


Bau-Malay-like low relief patterns.








Bau-Malay-like globular shape.


Kalinga storage jar wrapped in twisted rattan. Source: http://curieuxunivers.umontreal.ca/php/fiche.php?No=45MOA&langue=en

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Brinkley, Frank. Japan: Its History, Arts, and Literature, J.B. Millet Company, 1910.

Descantes, Christophe. Hector Neff, and Michael D. Glascock, "Yapese prestige goods: The INAA evidence for an Asian Dragon Jar," pp. 229-256, IN: Geochemical evidence for long-distance exchange, edited by Michael D. Glascock, Westport, Conn. : Bergin and Garvey, 2002.

Jagor, Fedor and William Gifford Palgrave> The Philippines and the Filipinos of Yesterday ..., Oriental commercial company, 1934.

McKibben, Michael A., C. Stewart Eldridge, and Agnes G. Reyes. Sulfur Isotopic Systematics of the June 1991 Mount Pinatubo Eruptions: A SHRIMP Ion Microprobe Study, http://pubs.usgs.gov/pinatubo/mckibben/index.html, 1999.

St. John, Spenser Buckingham. Life in the forests of the Far East, 1862, pp. 27-28, 300-302.

White, David Gordon. The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India, University of Chicago Press, 1998, pp. 234-235.