Engelbert Kaempfer (1651-1716), the German physician who served at the Dutch East India Company's factory on the island of Dejima in Nagasaki Harbour from September 1690 to November 1692, wrote about Japanese tea drinking in his 'History of Japan' in the following terms:

'The Tea, as it is taken inwardly, is prepared in ... [three] different ways. The first is used by the Chinese, and is nothing else but a simple infusion of the Tea-leaves in hot-water, which is drank as soon as it hath drawn out the virtue of the Plant. The same way of drinking Tea hath been also introduced to Europe, and is now so well known to every body, that it is needless to add any thing about it. The other way, which is peculiar to the Japanese, is by grinding: The leaves are a day before they are used, or on the same day, reduced inot a fine delicate powder, by grinding them in a hand-mill ... This powder is mix'd with hot water into a thin pulp, which is afterwards sip'd. This Tea is called ... Thick Tea ... and ... is that which all the rich people and great men in Japan daily drink. ... There is still a third way of making the Tea by a perfect boiling, which goes further than a simple infusion, and is used by the vulgar and Country people, who drink of it all day long.'

It was for the drinking of the second type of tea described by Kaempfer - ground, powdered or whipped tea ('matcha' in Japanese) - that this tea bowl was made. While this style of tea drinking was only practised in Japan at the time Kaempfer was writing (and still survives there today), it actually originated in China during the Song dynasty (960-1279). It was introduced to Japan in the late twelfth century by Zen Buddhist monks returning from studying in China and subsequently, having initially been used for its digestive and stimulant properties (to help keep monks awake during meditation, for example), was drunk on social occasions, the codification of the serving procedures for which gave rise, in the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, to what is known as the tea ceremony ('chanoyu' in Japanese).

This particular bowl was made at the Karatsu kilns on Japan's western island of Kyushu. It is in so-called 'Okugorai' shape after Korean tea bowls imported into Japan and favoured for use in the tea ceremony (the 'gorai' = 'korai' of 'Okugorai' is the Japanese term for Korea). The Karatsu kilns were established by Korean potters during the sixteenth century. They initially operated on a relatively modest scale, but expanded enormously following the Japanese invasions of Korea in 1592 and 1597, in the aftermath of which large numbers of Korean potters are recorded as having been forcefully taken to Japan to set up workshops in Karatsu and other parts of western Japan.