Rainfall / The Sound of Tea
- Date:
- 1956
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- British Museum
"Rainfall / The Sound of Tea" from 1956 — the year of the Venice Biennale Grand Prize — brings together two subjects that seem at first disparate but share a quality of atmospheric sound: the sound of rain and the sound of water boiling in a tea kettle. Munakata's close friendship with the tea ceramicist Kawai Kanjiro and his engagement with the mingei folk craft movement gave him a deep appreciation for the tea ceremony's aesthetic world, and this print suggests that he heard the sound of the tea ceremony's water as a kind of interior rainfall — both sounds registering the same quality of meditative presence.
1960
Woodblock print
Shôwa period, 1926-1989
Woodblock print
1939-68
Woodblock print
1939 (printed 1955)
Woodblock print
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Rainfall / The Sound of Tea was created by Shiko Munakata (棟方志功) in 1956.
Rainfall / The Sound of Tea depicts food & drink.
