Raku is a form of pottery developed in 16th century Japan by a tea master challenging the beauty of the ostentatious and ornamented porcelain perfection so adored at the time.Celebrating an aesthetic philosophy rooted in Zen Buddhism, Raku tea bowls were made in a ritual of graceful purity and austere simplicity. Pulled red hot from the kiln to cool rapidly, tea masters prized handmade and irregularly shaped bowls with uneven glaze, cracks, and a rebellious beauty of deliberate imperfection.