The history of Jian ware, Oil Spot and Hares Fur Tenmoku, is closely bound to the rise of Tea as a beverage in China in the Song Dynasty and the rising connoisseurship around the Chinese Tea Ceremony or Competition, as this became to be known. White Powdered Tea, White Phoenix, rose to prominence and was instrumental in the rise of the black bowls produced in the small valley outside Shuiji in Fujian Province, as the white tea was shown to great advantage against the black background of the Jian tea bowls. For some 250 years nearly all the black tea bowls in China were made here.
I was fortunate in my trip to Fujian in 2018 to be taken to a Tea House and have the Tea Master, Yi Ping, demonstrate the preparation of White Phoenix Tea in the City of Jianyang.