Raku Museum

The Raku Museum in Kyoto is dedicated to the tea bowls and legacy of a ceramics tradition that has passed through sixteen generations without interruption. It began in the late 1500s when tea master Sen no Rikyu asked ceramicist Chojiro to make bowls suited to wabi-cha, the aesthetic of simplicity. Chojiro's hand-built, red-and-black-glazed pieces established the Raku style. Each new generation studies inherited pieces as models rather than receiving direct instruction, developing individual interpretations within the tradition. The museum's collection of 1,300 items, established in 1976 next to the family workshop, spans all sixteen generations. Special programs let visitors hold and drink from actual Raku bowls.