The early original tea jars were precisely straightforward, unelaborate, an aspect of the pottery that appealed to tea masters, who adopted tea jars as storage vessels for tea leaves. The tea jars preserved the fragrance and the freshness of the tea, and were finally accorded with the aesthetic idea of wabi tea. The wabi aesthetic was developed by the fifteenth-century tea master Juko, who praised jars that had a withered well-used appearance. The concept of wabi has roots in Zen spiritual austerity. The Zen awakening produced interest in native wares from the local kilns and merchant ships that carried practical simple wares. This unpretentious merchant ware jar was most likely from southern China, and was exported to Japan where the tea ceremony was a simple procedure, yet an elaborate ritual of hospitality, and still remains an integral part of Japanese culture. This jar was constructed from iron rich coarse-textured stoneware clay, containing abundant sand and small stones.