Tea bowl, second half of 16th century. Unidentified, Korean, Choson period. Porcelain with colorless glaze; gold lacquer repairs. H: 7.1 W: 15.7 cm. Chinju or Sanch'ong, Korea. Gift of Charles Lang, Freer F1905.28 © 2014 Smithsonian Institution

Provincial Korean porcelain bowls were prized as tea bowls in Japan. Discoloration of the clay of such bowls was caused by the tea's seeping through pores in the glaze. Japanese connoisseurs poetically compared the subtle variations in color to the rain-stained plaster walls of a dilapidated hut. Gold lacquer was the material customarily used in Japan for ornamental repairs of chips and cracks.