The Relationship Between Tea Bowls and the Construction of the Political Authority of Japan in the Azuchi–Momoyama Period

This paper discusses the connection between tea bowls and political authority under the influence of the two most significant rulers during the Azuchi–Momoyama period (1568-1603), Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. It aims to comprehensively study what kinds of political messages were attached to tea bowls and how they were formed and associated, while understanding how they contributed to the construction of political authority. This paper argues that although the period as a whole saw the entanglement between tea bowls and political authority, this relationship was not singular but complicated and behaved differently under each ruler. On the one hand, Nobunaga built his expression of political authority to elites upon the possession, submission and gifting of traditionally recognised tea bowls. On the other hand, Hideyoshi presented his authority beyond the elites to commoners and the royals. This was achieved by spreading tea culture, using cheaper tea bowls to gain recognition as a cultural leader, while still exercising the relationship between the luxury tea bowls and power.