A large, round brown pot. How does it look to you?

This pot was brought to Japan from Luzon Island in the Philippines by Sakai merchant Luzon Sukezaemon. A harbor warehouse manager, Luzon employed his business acumen as a trader. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, ruler of Japan at the time, was delighted upon seeing the pots, praising their exotic nature. Other noted feudal lords lined up to buy them.

Back then, only the samurai class was privileged enough to partake in tea ceremonies. Tea utensils were given as rewards for distinguished samurai, causing their prices to soar. Luzon had already made his name as a trader, but it’s said that he fled to southeast Asia after Hideyoshi questioned his excessive opulence. He would die there.

Luzon Sukezaemon is in illustrious company. Among the merchants who colored Sakai’s golden days was the one and only Sen-no-Rikyū. Like Luzon, he managed goods distribution, but would later become nationally renowned as a master of the tea ceremony.

One story about Rikyū has it that he used fish baskets as vases. He valued finding new meaning in using items originally not meant for the tea room. The masters of Sakai engaged in the tea ceremony as an intellectual pastime for the erudite. They developed a way of appreciating tea unique to the international port of the city, thanks to the rare imported goods found there.