A set of five finger pinched sencha tea cups engraved with poems by Artist/Nun Otagaki Rengetsu enclosed in a rare original signed wooden box titled simply Chawan (Tea Bowls). The box is custom made specifically for this set, with one side cut away so as to allow ease o access for removing the small delicate bowls. Each cup is 6 cm (2-1/2 inches) diameter, 4.5 cm (2 inches) tall and all are in excellent condition. The five poems read:
Oki tsu kaze | The sea wind
yaya shizumari te | falls silent
yo wa fukaku | night deepens
Naruo no matsu ni | the pines of Naruo
tsumoru shirayuki. | enfolded in white snow
No ni yama ni | In the fields, in the mountains
ukare ukare te | so delighted
kaerusa wo | returning to my bedroom
neya made okuru | accompanied by
aki no yo no tsuki. | the Autumn Moon
Uguisu mo | Bush warblers
saki kakuma re te | hidden by blossoms
Umedani no | In plum valley
hana ni koe aru | whose flowers, I feel
kokochi koso | sure have voices
Kage tanomu | Over the tips
hitoki no matsu no | of the single pine
kozue yori | I rely upon
amari te neya ni | flowing into my bedroom
fuku arashi kana | a blustering gale
Kaguyama ya | At Mt. kagu
mine no sakaki ni | drifting amid
nabiku nari | sakaki trees at the peak...
kaze no kake taru | the wind-hung clouds
kumo no shirayuu | form tasseled amulets
Otagaki Rengetsu (1791-1875) was born into a samurai family, she was adopted into the Otagaki family soon after birth, and served as a lady in waiting in Kameoka Castle in her formative years, where she received an education worthy of a Lady of means. Reputed to be incredibly beautiful, she was married and bore three children; however, her husband and all children died before she was twenty. Remarried she bore another daughter, however that child too perished and her husband died while she was just 32. Inconsolable, she cut off her hair to join the nunnery at Chion-in Temple, where she renounced the world and received the name Rengetsu (Lotus Moon). However, this was not the end, but only the beginning of a career as artist and poet which would propel her to the top of the 19th century Japan literati art world.
