What is provenance?

There's a story that has stayed in my mind when I think about the topic. It involves the 16th century Japanese tea master, Sen no Rikyu.

Rikyu is famous for establishing the foundations of Japanese tea ceremony. He collected many ceremonial artifacts that are known to be masterpieces. One of his chawan (teabowls) was the Kimamori.

A kimamori refers to a piece of fruit you leave on a tree after a harvest. It is done to give thanks for the bounty and to protect the tree until the next year's harvest. In writing it literally means protector of tree: 木守

Rikyu's Kimamori got its name from how it came into his hands. As the story goes, a famous potter gave Rikyu several chawan, and Rikyu called his disciples to each pick one of their choice.

Each disciple carefully inspected the teabowls and made a decision on which one they wanted to keep. Rikyu took the one that remained, and since it was the last fruit on the tree, named it Kimamori.

At the end of the day, it was the teabowl that was not chosen that became known as a masterpiece. Kimamori comes up frequently in accounts about Rikyu, and continued to be admired until it was lost in the Kanto Earthquake of 1923.

Was Kimamori a masterpiece from the beginning, or was it because it was owned by Rikyu that it became known as one? How much does the origin story, the owner, the history, contribute to the value of the artifact?

In other words, how important is provenance?

When it comes to digital artifacts, I imagine it will matter a lot. Part of what I like about NFTs is that a story is unfolding with every trade, a history being written in real time. I think this can be true for all digital art: generative, 1/1s, pfps.

I guess we will see how the NFT space will grow, and what people will value over time. For now I continue to collect what I like, at prices I can afford. Wouldn't do it any other way.

[Originally posted as a Twitter thread linked below]