Japanese Art from the Collection – Accessible Exhibition Text

Return to the Japanese Art from the Collection exhibition page

West Corridor

Japanese Art from the Collection

The Japanese islands stretch across more than 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers) from north to south—the distance from Maine to Florida. The country covers four climate zones, from subarctic in the far north to subtropical in the south. Climate and locality have long been central themes in Japanese culture, where seasonal poetry and regional tales have found their way into the visual, performing, literary, and religious arts.

If seasonal cycles represent a constant and familiar rhythm in Japanese culture, equally important in its historic development have been moments of rupture and instability. Military conflict; the arrival of foreign flora, technology, and ideas; and the establishment of new regimes and urban centers left an indelible mark on Japanese society and culture. Artists responded to these challenging moments in creative and unprecedented ways, resulting in representations of the environment and human existence that are unique to Japan.

Japanese Art from the Collection aims to highlight both iconic and lesser-known aspects of Japanese culture. We invite you to explore how the environment impacted Japanese art, how shifting notions of self and body made their way into paintings and plastic arts, how crises gave rise to opportunities throughout Japanese history, and how new research shifts our understanding of Japan’s cultural production.

Generous support for the museum’s Japanese art program is provided by Mitsubishi Corporation.

Accessibility Information

This exhibition examines Japan’s rich artistic legacy by considering how its diverse climates, evolving history, and creative responses to change shaped Japanese visual culture. Japanese Art from the Collection is made up of four galleries (5–7). They are painted in differing shades of neutral tan and beige. The large blue panels indicate the introduction text for each individual gallery and its theme. Scan the QR code below to access the web page for the exhibition. There, you will find the exhibition labels, images, and other content, which can be enlarged, read aloud, or otherwise enhanced using your mobile device. Revisit the museum’s website (asia.si.edu) at any time for additional information on accessible features and offerings.

Plating Place

How does one convey a sense of place? In the Edo period (1603–1868), porcelain with underglaze cobalt blue designs was a medium for novel and whimsical depictions of Japan and its famous places. The earliest plate to the left is a rare rectangular dish portraying a map of Japan, reflecting growing interest in so-called Western studies that grew in popularity through exposure from Dutch traders. The large circular dish details a playful sense of place by representing the famous fifty-three stops along the Tokaido road—the main thoroughfare connecting Edo (present-day Tokyo) to Kyoto—inspired by the format of a popular board game called sugoroku. The dish in the shape of Mount Fuji focuses on one of the famous stops along the Tokaido. The volcanic mountain’s silhouette frames a famous scene of travelers along the bay by port Ejiri with the sandy pine grove of Miho in the distance.

Dish depicting map of Japan
Japan, Saga prefecture, Arita, possibly Ohoyama kiln, Edo period, 1830–1844
Arita ware
Porcelain with cobalt pigment under clear glaze
Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1996.4

Dish with design of the Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido
Japan, Saga prefecture, Arita, possibly Ohoyama kiln, Edo period, 1840–1850
Arita ware
Porcelain with cobalt pigment under clear colorless glaze
Anonymous gift in memory of Dr. Harold P. Stern, F1974.33

Dish in the form of Mt. Fuji, with Miho no Matsubara
Japan, Saga prefecture, Arita, Edo period, 1790–1868
Arita ware
Porcelain with cobalt pigment under colorless glaze
Anonymous gift in memory of Dr. Harold P. Stern, F1980.182a–c

---

Gallery 5

Changing Environments

The environment—local, regional, national, and global—impacts the making of art in different ways. In this gallery, we highlight works that in one way or another show the effect of a changing ecology in Japan. Widespread destruction during a civil war that ravaged Japan in the sixteenth century, for example, depleted timber needed for reconstruction. Woods were reforested with the fast-growing cypress tree. These vast quantities of cypresses were captured by painters and poets and became a key resource for any timber construction. They continue to determine Japan’s landscape to this day.

The environment also impacted the appearance and circulation of ceramics. Depending on the locale, potters dug their clay from sites such as riverbeds, hillsides, or a combination of sources, which determined the characteristics of the earthen bodies. The ash from different materials, such as wood or straw, lent the glaze regional flavor in terms of color and texture. Access to waterways like rivers or proximity to the sea facilitated the transfer of ceramic vessels to other places in Japan, thus impacting the success of a given kiln.

Too Dark in Here?

Some visitors ask us, “Why is it so dark in here?” Good question! For one, the fragile pigments and materials in Japanese art are not made for the brightly lit, white-cube spaces of modern museums. In these gallery spaces, we have a unique combination of artificial illumination curated by our expert light technicians along with filtered natural light entering through the ceiling windows. The sunlight intensifies and fades with the time of day or season. As a result, you can experience the works anew depending on the time of year or weather when you visit us. That combination may result in darker spaces than you are used to, but twilight is the closest environment to the original context for which traditional Japanese art was made. It allows brushstrokes, materials, and other different elements to blend into an organic, coherent whole.

In the Backwoods

Plants of the seasons are a major part of traditional Japanese poetry and painting. Even though many plants, like plum blossoms, remained a part of that tradition for centuries, changing environments introduced new plants into Japan’s literary and visual vocabularies. With the devastation caused by civil war during much of the sixteenth century, there was a huge need for timber to rebuild large, deforested areas of the country. Many woods were reforested with the fast-growing cypress tree, introducing a vast quantity of them into Japan’s landscape. This painting captures fledgling cypresses in one such environment.

Cryptomerias and cedars on a snowy hillside
Japan, Momoyama period, early 17th century
Ink, color, and gold on paper
Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1898.476

Modernity’s Pull

This painting almost feels as if it preempts Kawabata Yasunari’s (1899–1972) famous novel Snow Country (Yukiguni, 1948), which begins with exiting a long tunnel before entering a different realm. Sakakibara Shiko has opened an aperture onto a quintessential Japanese farm village with quaint wooden houses and paddy fields. But the evocation of traditional life is fractured by the lone electricity pole in the far left, signaling that modernity has encroached into every corner of life.

Landscape
Sakakibara Shiko (1895–1969)
Japan, Taishō era, 1918
Two-panel screen; ink, gold, and white chalk (?) on silk
The Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection, Gift of Mary and Cheney Cowles, F2022.2.49

Surface Textures

Cypresses, or sugi in Japanese, quickly became a staple in Japanese architecture and landscapes. The timber also made its way into paintings like this one. Uncoated wooden doors—so-called sugito, or cypress doors—were used as an outer layer to protect sliding doors from the elements. Their wood grain made them intriguing surfaces for painters, who often incorporated the texture into their images. Ogata Kōrin, for example, used the grain to amplify Mount Fuji’s steepness as seen from a distance.

Mount Fuji, from the Tales of Ise
Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716)
Japan, Edo period, early 18th century
Ink, color, and silver on sugi (cryptomeria) wood
Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1903.103–104

When Grit Is Not Enough

Clay is one of the oldest and most enduring materials for artistic expression in the world, and as such, evidence of advanced cultural activity. While Japan has some kilns that have been in operation for centuries, in reality, it is difficult to sustain ceramic production in one place for a long time due to changes in the availability of natural and human resources and from competition with other kilns. The ceramics shown here are from kilns and settlements that are no longer active. The Jōmon period (ca. 10,500–ca. 300 BCE) refers to the “cord marks” (jōmon) on pottery—none of which are alike—made by hunter-gatherer communities. In the Yayoi period (ca. 300 BCE–ca. 300 CE), people adopted wet-rice cultivation from Korea and southeastern China and shifted toward permanent agrarian settlements. The simple and symmetrical jar was hand-built with an added coating of bright red slip that was polished to make the vessel less porous. The gray Sue ware flask with its globular body and elegant, flared trumpet neck consists of wheel-thrown components pieced together by hand and features an incidental ash glaze. Regional kilns such as Suzu and Kameyama adopted Sue ware techniques for large functional vessels, but production eventually waned due to the success of competitor kilns.

Jar
Japan, Nagano prefecture, Togariishi site, Jōmon period, ca. 3000–2500 BCE
Unglazed earthenware
Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1974.5

Jar with burnished red slip
Japan, Fukuoka prefecture, Fukuoka city, Jonoharu site, Yayoi period, 1st century
Yayoi ware, Sugu type
Earthenware clay with burnished red slip
Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1982.31a–c

Flask
Japan, Aichi prefecture, Nagoya area, Asuka period, ca. 650
Sue ware
Unglazed stoneware with accumulation of natural ash glaze
Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1981.13a–c

Jar
Japan, Okayama prefecture, Kameyama kilns, Kamakura or Muromachi period, 14th–15th century
Kameyama ware
Unglazed gray stoneware
Purchase—Harold P. Stern Memorial Fund, F1999.1

Storage jar
Japan, Ishikawa prefecture, Suzu kilns, Kamakura period, early 14th century
Suzu ware
Unglazed gray stoneware
Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1998.79

Botany Class

With new practices to forestry and the emphasis on different crops during the seventeenth century, many paintings began to reflect the changing landscape witnessed across Japan. An interest in botany provided another incentive for capturing new plants in works of art. Alongside common plants like pines, this pair of screens shows an array of plants new to both Japanese painting and landscapes at the time. You can find magnolia, oak, and daphne, among others—a textbook of botany. All are young trees, embodying the spirit of new beginnings and future endurance.

Trees
Inen seal (1600–1630)
Japan, Edo period, mid-17th century
Ink, color, and gold on paper
Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1962.30–31

Pines Forever

Pine trees have a long history in Japanese visual, literary, and theatrical arts. As evergreens, they were linked with impermanence and resilience. They have no direct seasonality and can be used in spring and summer as much as in fall and winter. Pine trees are lauded in poetry and form the backdrop for stages in the traditional noh theater. They are also ever-present in paintings like these from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But it was during this time period when new plants became dominant in Japanese landscapes, with cypress trees being planted in such vast quantities, they changed the landscape of Japan to this day. A sense of nostalgia for an idealized, bygone scenery is palpable in works like these.

Pine tree, autumn foliage, flowers and snow
Japan, Edo period, 18th century
Color and gold on paper
Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1899.93

Spring landscape with pines and blossoming cherry trees
Japan, Edo period, early 17th century
Ink, color, and gold on paper
Gift of Mrs. Garnet Hulings, F1984.39

---

Gallery 6

The Body

Japanese artists have long depicted bodies—whether physical or supernatural—to reveal complex emotional and psychological states in addition to conveying beauty standards of different eras. Manipulating bodily proportions or highlighting specific features can illuminate individual or societal associations with gestures as subtle as a tilted head. Those standards shift over time, impacting how artists depict ideal human figures. At times, artists have taken on the challenge of depicting imagined bodies, which can be monstrous or celestial, thus stretching the limits of their creative expression.

Depictions of and reflections on the body can extend beyond the painted surfaces of paper and silk into ceramics and sculpture. Artists shaped clay into human figures, but sometimes utilitarian ceramic vessels took on a bodily familiarity that collectors appreciated. Masks for theater and rituals depict human emotion, which changes the appearance of those who wear them and facilitates their psychological and spiritual transformation. The works in this gallery explore some of the ways in which Japanese artists have pursued creative expression in relation to ideas of the body.

Anatomy of a Pot

Mouth, neck, shoulder, and foot. These are words commonly used to refer to mammalian anatomy, but they are also parts of a ceramic vessel. Although clay pots, bowls, and bottles are typically nonrepresentational works of art, their structural components have been likened to body parts. In sixteenth-century Japan, wealthy merchants who attended tea gatherings took notes on the ceramics they saw and described them using anatomical terms. In this context, utilitarian ceramics for drinking tea, holding fresh water, and storing tea leaves were displayed and appreciated for the color of their clay and glaze, their silhouettes, and their distinctive features, such as glaze drips. Thus, Japanese collectors came to distinguish vessels based on their unique characteristics.

Legs and Letter

In Japanese history, different parts of the body held erotic appeal. In this painting, Katsushika Hokusai presents a stereotypical image of a woman during the Edo period (1603–1868). The hairstyle, for example, identifies her as a sex worker. The viewer glimpses her during an unguarded moment as she clasps a letter, her untied kimono askew and revealing different parts of her body. The focus of this alluring painting is not the courtesan but rather the mysterious letter she holds. Hokusai provides a voyeuristic glance at the woman in a private setting, yet the scene keeps the viewer guessing as to the context of the moment and to the content of the letter.

Woman Holding a Letter
Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849)
Japan, Edo period, ca. 1796–1798
Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1903.129

Mix and Match

An elegant woman is dressed in a kimono and cloak that reflect the latest fashion of her time. Such porcelain figurines were made in multiples using a mold, but when it comes to the designs on their robes, no two figures are alike. The textile motifs were adapted from woodblock-printed pattern books called hinagata, published beginning in the Kambun era (1661–1673). The enamelists reinterpreted these black and white patterns in color to produce unique figurines that were popular in both Japan and Europe.

Figure of a woman
Japan, Saga prefecture, Arita, Kakiemon kiln, Edo period, 1670–1700
Nangawara Arita ware, Kakiemon type
Porcelain with enamels over clear colorless glaze
Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1975.1

On Second Look

In the early twentieth century, some Japanese painters began depicting women in scenes of romanticized domestic life—wives, housewives, farmers, and so on. Shima Sei’en, one of a handful of women artists at the time who revived the tradition of portraying beautiful women (bijinga), resisted this trend of shoehorning women into obedient roles. Here, she renders a woman sporting a man’s hairdo, evoking a nineteenth-century tradition of playing with gender norms while also retaining some of the erotic nuances part of traditional bijinga works.

“Beauty in the Guise of a Man” (Danso bijin)
Shima Sei’en (1892–1970)
Japan, Meiji or Taishō era, 20th century, prior to 1927
Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
Purchase—funds provided by the Friends of Asian Arts, F1996.7

Dressing Chigusa

When the tea-leaf storage jar named Chigusa came to the National Museum of Asian Art in 2014, it carried with it nearly five centuries of history as an important object long appreciated by tea practitioners in Japan. Along with the storage boxes, wrapping papers and cloths, and documents that speak to Chigusa’s status as a cherished ceramic, there are silk cords, covers, and pouches that tea practitioners have used to dress Chigusa when presenting the jar at tea gatherings. The following video shows the process of dressing Chigusa in two different ways.

Running time: Five minutes and forty-four seconds
This video is silent with no narration
National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, video by Stanley J. Staniski

Ordinary Yet Extraordinary

Chigusa is a tea-leaf storage jar that represented the aesthetic pinnacle of ceramics for sixteenth-century tea men in Japan. These jars were fired at kilns in southern China, brought to Japan carrying trade goods, and repurposed to store freshly harvested tea leaves in mountain caves during the hot summer months. In addition to this utilitarian purpose, tea practitioners displayed these tea-leaf storage jars at their tea gatherings, where they prepared and drank whisked, powdered green tea called matcha. They identified unique characteristics such as glaze drips, blisters, or even nipples, writing these observations in their diaries and bestowing personal names on the objects. Published tea documents dating back to the sixteenth century tell of the long-standing acclaim for Chigusa.

Tea-leaf storage jar, named Chigusa
China, Guangdong province, Southern Song or Yuan dynasty, mid-13th–mid-14th century
Stoneware with iron glaze
Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F2016.20.1

The Diaries of a Jar

These are select entries from sixteenth-century tea diaries that describe the tea-leaf storage jar named Chigusa. The name Chigusa has overlapping meanings of “myriad things” (千種) or “myriad plants” (千草), depending on the graphs used, as well as a poetic association with autumn.

Matsuya Hisayoshi, as recorded on Tenshō 14 [1586].4.25 in his tea diary, Matsuya kaiki. The host was Kondaya Tokurin; the guests were Matsue Ryūsen and Matsuya.

Chigusa 千種 ōtsubo [large jar]. Displayed from the start . . . It was in a light blue net. The mouth cover was red-ground gold brocade, and its cord was light brown colored. The two, both, were old. It was reported that Insetsu had them made, and the mouth cover was especially remarkable. The jar should hold about five to six kin of tea, had lines at the mouth, at the waist no “distant mountain” [tōyama] lines, the one-color glaze was “quail grain” [uzurame], no fire marks [hoguchi], had an uchiai overlap in the glaze, the clay was red and remarkable.

Nagashima Fukutarō, annot. “Matsuya kaiki.” In Chadō koten zenshū, ed. Sen Sōshitsu, 163. Vol. 9. Kyoto: Tankōsha, 1957.

Kamiya Sōtan, as recorded on Tenshō 15 [1587].1.6 in his tea diary, Sōtan nikki. The host was Kondaya Tokurin; Kamiya Sōtan was the only guest.

The tsubo [jar] Chigusa千種: the clay is coarse and red, the lower part swells, on the bottom are blisters [kobu] . . . The glaze is thick, and there are many downward flows [nadare]. Below that the glaze appears to divide. Three potting lines. From the neck, between two of the nipples [lugs] and above, there are small lines in three areas; in one area in the place between the nipples they cannot be seen. The mouth cover is red-colored, old, gold brocade, and the reverse is light blue.

Haga Kōshirō, annot. “Sōtan nikki.” In Chadō koten zenshū, ed. Sen Sōshitsu, 167–69. Vol. 6. Kyoto: Tankōsha, 1956.

Adapted from translations by Andrew M. Watsky

Capturing the Moment

Images of the brothel quarters of the Edo period (1603–1868) began becoming popular after the late seventeenth century. Customers and the general public alike were keen for glimpses of Japan’s demimonde, a world of artistic and sexual entertainment contrasted by the often harsh conditions for the women working within it. Paintings like these turned the faces and bodies of sex workers into idealized images whose emphases changed with the tastes of each respective time. Women are often shown in unguarded moments. This relatively early image of a yūjo shows her fixing her hair, which is kept in the fashion of the early eighteenth century.

Yūjo doing her hair
Hishikawa Moroyasu (early 18th century)
Japan, Edo period, 18th century
Hanging scroll; lacquer black on paper
Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1898.114

Complex Cosmetics

Makeup was an essential part of the identity sex workers projected in the Edo period’s (1603–1868) brothel culture. Faces were covered in white powder layered onto a wax base. Afterwards, black-colored liner was applied to accent the eyes and red was used to color the lips (beni). Iridescent red was particularly desired and expensive. During a brief period between the early 1800s and 1830s, green pigment was popular for accentuating the lips, as seen in these two paintings. Called sasabeni, or “bamboo grass lip coloring,” it was extracted from safflowers. When wet, the pigment was red and turned green when dry.

Woman holding a fan
Painting: Shuransai Zengo (late 18th–early 19th century)
Inscription: Okada Gyokuzan (d. 1807 or 1808)
Japan, late 18th–early 19th century
Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1995.10a–f

Woman applying makeup
Gion Seitoku (d. 1827)
Japan, Edo period, 1801–1804
Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper
Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1997.11

Fiery Fool

This mask represents a comical character, hyottoko, who features in agricultural rituals and rural festivals. The puckered mouth depicts the character blowing air through a bamboo tube to start the fire of a cooking stove. As such, the name hyottoko is said to derive from the term hifuki-otoko (literally, “fire-blowing man”). Hyottoko masks tend to have distorted faces and mismatched eyes, and this example shows the mouth agape with the tongue in full view. The left eye, which is drawn as an arched line and is completely shut, suggests the wearer may have been missing an eye.

Hyottoko mask
Japan, Edo period, 17th–18th century
Wood with colored pigment
Collected by Seymour J. Janow and Gifted in his memory by his Family, F2003.5.4

Clay Bodies

Examples from three different kilns demonstrate creative interpretations of vessel shapes. The vase to the left is thickly potted with a squashed bottom. The two “ears” protruding from the sides hint that the vase is a loose interpretation of far more symmetrical and streamlined Chinese celadon counterparts that were collected and appreciated by Japanese tea practitioners. At first glance, the sake bottle looks like a contorted gourd, but it is in fact meant to look like a wild duck. The quality of Imbe clay allowed potters to throw thin-walled vessels that could be shaped before being further distorted during the firing process. Spots of incidental ash glaze from the kiln may be likened to markings on a duck feather. The porcelain bottle with colorful overglaze enamel designs was most likely made for export to Europe and is characterized in Japan as a “tea-whisk shape.”

Vase
Japan, Mie prefecture, Iga kilns, Momoyama period, 1600–1615
Iga ware
White stoneware with multiple layers of ash glaze, iron glaze; gold lacquer repairs
Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1898.451

Sake bottle (tokkuri) in the shape of a wild duck
Teramichi Enkinchi (d. 1838)
Japan, Okayama prefecture, Imbe, Edo period, early 19th century
Bizen ware, Imbe type
Stoneware with ash glaze drops
Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1896.58

Hizen ware bottle in tea-whisk form
Japan, Saga prefecture, Arita, Edo period, 1650–1670
Arita ware, early enamel type
Porcelain with enamels over colorless glaze
Gift of Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer, F1970.41

---

Gallery 6a

Research Spotlight: Japanese Ceramics in Southeast Asia

From the seventeenth century, Japan became a center of export ceramics with the establishment of new kilns in the southern island of Kyushu. Such kilns were formed with the know-how of Korean potters—some migrants and others forcibly brought to Japan as captives of the Imjin War (1592–1598)— who found local sources of kaolin clay and introduced climbing kilns that could reach high temperatures, two important elements necessary for firing porcelain. These technological advances, combined with Chinese techniques of overglaze enamel and Japanese aesthetic sensibility, gave rise to Japanese export porcelains such as Kakiemon (on view in gallery 6), which the Dutch East India Company exported to Europe, where they became popular among royalty and nobility. Simultaneously, humbler, slip-inlaid glazed stoneware vessels were made in Japan for both local consumption and export, such as wares from the Takeo Karatsu kilns.

These ceramics made their way to Southeast Asia, where they were treated as heirlooms; the large bowl (F1987.14) on display is an example. While the simple ornamentation and muted colors of these stoneware vessels are a contrast to the vivid and complex designs on Japanese porcelain, archaeological evidence suggests Korean potters made porcelain and stoneware at the same kiln. The ceramic vessels and sherds on display here illustrate a fuller picture of how Japanese ceramics played a key role in Asian maritime networks and trade in the seventeenth century.

Parts of a Whole

Ceramic sherds are typically found at archaeological sites, where archaeologists excavate and document them as evidence of past human activity. These sites are usually kilns where the ceramics were made or are settlements where the ceramics were used. Although sherds are fragments of a larger object, they are valuable for research. Sherds allow us to see the cross section of ceramics, which can reveal the material qualities of the clay body and added ornamentation, such as slip-inlays or overglaze, which are not visible on the surface of a complete object. Sherds also illustrate a fuller picture of what types of ceramics were made and available in the past, beyond the examples that have survived intact into the present.

Fair Winds and Following Seas

The Dutch East India Company, also known as VOC (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie), played a pivotal role in sustaining Japan’s trade within an Asian maritime network. Originally established as a single chartered company of Dutch traders eager to profit from the Asian spice trade, the VOC’s existence (1602–1799) coincided with Tokugawa rule (1603–1868) in Japan. After the 1630s, when the shogunate enacted strict regulations on foreign commerce, the VOC became the only European entity permitted to trade directly with Japan. This unique relationship, coupled with shifting political and economic dynamics within the Asian maritime sphere, brought Japanese commodities, such as silver and ceramics, to China, Southeast Asia, and Europe. This map shows the VOC’s wide-reaching trade network.

Twice Thrown

These wheel-thrown bowls feature freehand designs that were brushed on and then covered with glaze. Called hakeme (“brushstroke”), this type of slip-decorated stoneware was first made in Korea (called K. buncheong) and then brought to Japan, where it became popular among tea practitioners for use as tea bowls. Although the production of buncheong ware ceased in the 1580s, Japanese collectors sought similar ceramics, leading to reinterpretations at other kilns. These vessels are too small to use as tea bowls and were probably everyday tableware.

Bowls
Japan, Saga prefecture, Takeo, Takeo Karatsu kilns, Edo period, 1700–1760
Karatsu ware, Takeo Karatsu type
Stoneware with white slip brushed under clear glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1898.504, F1898.502, and F1898.503

Waves Upon Waves

Concentric bands of wavy, brushed-slip designs radiate from the center outward on this bowl. The bowl is in good condition and is one of three that were acquired in Indonesia, where such Japanese bowls seem to have been treasured as heirlooms passed down from generation to generation. The wavy designs, called hakeme, are inspired by Korean predecessors brought to Japan in the sixteenth century. The bowl is the earliest example among those shown here, and the evenness of the design and splash of copper and iron pigments under the clear glaze further distinguish it.

Bowl
Japan, Saga prefecture, Takeo, Takeo Karatsu kilns, Edo period, 1660–1700
Karatsu ware, Takeo Karatsu type
Stoneware with white slip, copper and iron pigments under clear glaze
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Floyd L. Whittington, F1987.14

Marks and Traces

Vigorous, wavy strokes cut across the horizontal bands wrapping around this cylindrical vessel. The brushed white slip contrasts with the gray body, which bears evidence along the rim of a missing lid that was fired together with the bowl in a kiln. Though not fired as a tea bowl, the vessel was repurposed as such by a collector with a keen eye and a preference for the slip-decorated appearance of Korean stoneware and similarly decorated ceramics. Scratches on the interior from the tea whisk, accompanied by tea stains, are evidence of the vessel’s life as a tea bowl.

Bowl (formerly with lid)
Japan, Saga prefecture, Edo period, 1700–1760
Takeo or Ureshino Karatsu ware
Stoneware with white slip under clear glaze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1900.8

Pieces of a Puzzle

The sherds shown here all feature brushed white slip decorations on gray stoneware and were excavated from kilns in Takeo in Saga prefecture, Japan. The sherds from the Kotoge kilns were collected on site by John Alexander Pope (1906–1982), a scholar of Asian ceramics and the former director of what was then known as the Freer Gallery of Art. An expert on Chinese Ming-dynasty blue and white porcelain exported to Turkey, Pope traveled to Japan in the final years of his life and studied kiln sites. Other sherds are from the Kuromuda kiln group and Niwagi kiln group, also in Takeo. Altogether, these sherds demonstrate differences in clay and production methods from kiln to kiln as well as from the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, providing evidence that can help to identify the source and date of similar ceramics.

Bowl fragments and wasters
Japan, Saga prefecture, Takeo, Kotoge kiln, Edo period, 1630–1640
Uchida Karatsu ware
Stoneware with white slip under clear ash glaze
Gift of John A. Pope
Freer Study Collection, FSC-P-1569, FSC-P-1571–1577, FSC-P-1582

Bowl (nearly whole)
Japan, Saga prefecture, Takeo, Kuromuda kiln group, Edo period, 18th century
Karatsu ware
Stoneware with white slip under ash glaze
Gift of Mr. Yokota
Freer Study Collection, FSC-P-1730a–b

Bowl fragments
Japan, Saga prefecture, Takeo, Teikibaru kiln, Niwagi kiln group, Edo period, 1650–1699
Karatsu ware, Takeo Karatsu type
Stoneware with white slip, iron pigment under clear glaze
Gift of Mr. Yokota
Freer Study Collection, FSC-P-2056 and FSC-P-2058

---

Gallery 7

Crises and Opportunities

Japan’s history has been marked by moments of fundamental change. These points in time often uprooted people’s lives, but they also offered opportunities for new ideas to take hold.
Civil war in the late eleventh century triggered major political changes that positioned the shogunate as the most powerful political force. Simultaneously, the breakdown of civic order triggered a reshuffling of the religious landscape. It enabled evangelists, new religious movements, and different Buddhist deities to take root. In the mid-nineteenth century, the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate and the establishment of a modern nation-state based on Western models impacted virtually all aspects of life and culture, from the adoption of Western dress to the abolishment of arms and swords.

Japanese approaches to the care and repair of damaged objects reflect an adaptive and resilient attitude in times of upheaval. Kintsugi, the technique of mending ceramics with lacquer paste and gold, gave broken vessels a second life while imbuing them with a new aesthetic. The remounting of scrolls of painting or calligraphy not only stabilized but also reframed the artworks with textiles suffused with meaning and color, deepening appreciation of the subject matter.

The works in this gallery reflect how Japanese artists and patrons empowered themselves with new forms of artistic expression and aesthetic paradigms, even in challenging times.

Religious Thought

Into the present day, Japan has embraced many religions, but traditionally, Shinto and Buddhism have had the largest followings and strongest impacts on Japanese culture. At different points in history—often triggered by political crises, natural calamities, and shifting attitudes—new religious interpretations took root. For example, Buddhists in Japan calculated that the year 1052 marked the beginning of the so-called Latter Day of the Dharma (mappō), a time when the efficacy of Buddhist teachings would decline and the possibility of attaining salvation by personal means would become exceptionally difficult. New Buddhist teachings began to spring up promising to fill that void, similarly to how the rise of the warrior class’s political power around the same time inspired a veneration of more physically imposing, ferocious deities.

Modern Japan

In the mid-nineteenth century, the seven-hundred-year political dominance of the warrior class collapsed. With the beginning of the Meiji era in 1868, Japan recast itself as a constitutional monarchy with ambitions to become a geopolitical force. After 200 years of de facto seclusion from the outside world, modern Japan witnessed the full-scale rekindling of its society, politics, and culture. Artists responded in paradoxical ways, either by emphasizing Japanese tradition or by completely shunning it. They reinterpreted age-old themes and pushed the limits of traditional materials to achieve novel visual effects. At the same time, formalized Western arts training introduced new subject matters, such as the modern conveniences of electricity and telegraphs, and new mediums, such as oil paint. Art provided opportunities to depart from established norms as well as a sense of grounding in a turbulent present.

Repairing and Preserving

Japanese approaches to art preservation continue age-old techniques while also looking toward the future. For centuries, broken ceramics were repaired using a technique called kintsugi, which involves the use of raw lacquer, wheat paste, and powdered gold. The practice became so popular that eventually, people tried it at home with easier-to-handle materials, such as food-safe epoxy instead of lacquer. In another example, paintings and works of calligraphy, such as hanging scrolls and handscrolls, sometimes receive new structural support in the form of a paper backing in addition to their characteristic textile “frames,” called mountings. Our museum has been a leader in the conservation and preservation of Asian arts for more than a century. Different generations of conservators have worked to ensure the longevity of paintings, prints, ceramics, lacquer works, and metalwork. This section highlights some of this conservation work as well as repairs added centuries before.

Devotion in the Details

Metalworking has been a mainstay in Japanese Buddhist art for both ritual implements and figural sculpture. These two sutra containers were hammered from bronze to protect the sutra within for the future as an expression of faith in Buddha’s teachings in trying times. While one container features an elaborate engraved design of the Mahavairocana boddhisattva floating above two male courtiers praying on a rock among turbulent waters, the other has a plain body with a finial on the lid, fashioned like the sacred gems that top pagodas. The small cast figurine was likely part of a larger ensemble for a Buddhist altar, as a detail on a larger sculpture’s halo. The modestly sized gilt bronze boddhisattva was first cast, then embellished by hand to add delicate details to the lotus pedestal, robe, and accessories.

Sutra container with cover
Japan, Nara period, 724
Gilt bronze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1909.253a–b

Sutra container with sacred gem top
Japan, Heian period, 12th century
Bronze
Gift of Sylvan Barnet and William Burto, F2014.6.8a–j

Figurine
Japan
Bronze
Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1894.34a–b

Standing figure of a bodhisattva
Japan, Asuka period, mid-7th century
Bronze
Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1951.21a–c

Say My Name

Civil war in the late twelfth century and the relative fractionalization of Japan for centuries after opened space for a staggering number of new religious movements. Evangelists traveled across the country to proclaim that reciting the Buddha Amitabha’s name with all your heart alone would ensure rebirth in their Pure Land, or Western Paradise. This narrative handscroll captures one such new religious movement at the time that focused on the incantation of Amitabha’s name, nenbutsu in Japanese.

Origins of the Yuzu Nenbutsu Sect
Japan, Kamakura or Muromachi period, 14th century
Ink, color, and gold on paper
Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1959.13

If I Were a Fisherman

Japanese painters of the early twentieth century idealized village life much in the same way as their counterparts in other regions of the world. From their perspectives, farmers, fishermen, and others performing manual labor led pure lives unencumbered by the stresses of modernity. Or so they thought—the reality, of course, looked much different. But that type of projection and recasting of real-life experience gave rise to an entire genre of works like this image, depicted in today’s southern Chiba prefecture.

Seaside Village in Bōshū
Ikeda Yōson (1895–1988)
Japan, Taishō era, ca. 1922
Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
The Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection, Gift of Mary and Cheney Cowles, F2021.4.14a–c

Seaweed Tetris

Many painters of the Meiji era (1868–1912) and after traveled extensively both in Japan and abroad, capturing their experiences in pictures that reconfigured the actual places they visited. Imamura Shikō painted an unknown place where he witnessed the longstanding tradition of drying seaweed—a key ingredient in Japanese cuisine. His seaweed, however, evokes none of its actual tastiness; its inky flecks look remote and cold, giving the painting an abstract impression.

Drying seaweed
Imamura Shikō (1880–1916)
Japan, Taishō era, ca. 1914
Hanging scroll; ink and light color on silk
The Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection, Gift of Mary and Cheney Cowles, F2021.4.15a–e

Night Business

How do you capture the darkest time of day? Japanese painters, like those in many other cultures, have found multiple ways to render the night. In many examples, night is merely suggested by adding the moon and other contextual clues, like in this painting. Cormorant fishing was traditionally done at night to attract fish to the light of torches so the cormorants could catch them. The inherently cruel practice—tying the birds’ necks to prevent them from swallowing their prey—was romanticized in plays, poetry, and paintings.

Cormorants
Shimomura Kanzan (1873–1930)
Japan, Meiji era, ca. 1910
Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
The Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection, Gift of Mary and Cheney Cowles, F2022.2.51a–f

Dawning of a New Era

A pair of porcelain vases embodies the new aesthetic of the Meiji era (1868–1912) with a dramatic depiction of a mythical Shinto tale central to Japan’s nation-building efforts. In the tale shown on these vases, Amaterasu, the angry sun goddess, locked herself into a cave, plunging the world into darkness. The painted scene shows her emerging, her interest piqued by the laughter of gods amused by the humorous and erotic dance of a young and voluptuous goddess. The artist, Kanzan Denshichi, was the first in Japan to adopt newly introduced Western overglaze enamel pigments for porcelain, mixing stark black with brighter pastels to emulate Western realist painting. Kanzan won awards at the Paris (1878), Sydney (1879), and Amsterdam (1883) international expositions, and his workshop became an important part of Meiji Japan’s economy, which boomed with the export of artworks to the West.

A pair of vases
Kanzan Denshichi (1821–1890)
Japan, Kyoto, Gojōzaka, Meiji era, late 19th century
Kyoto ware
Porcelain with enamels over clear glaze
Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1996.33.1 and F1996.33.2

Shining Light

This monumental painting visualizes a core idea of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism: the descent of Buddha Amitabha (or Amida in Japanese) to bring a deceased person back to the Pure Land, or Western Paradise. The painting’s gold radiates the light associated with Amitabha, along with their retinue of bodhisattvas. Following a common practice of Buddhist paintings, gold and pigment were also applied to the back of the silk to increase the intensity and longevity. In the late eleventh century, the promise of divine assurance in Pure Land Buddhism became immensely popular in Japan in the wake of civil war and other calamities.

Welcoming Descent of Amitabha and Twenty-Five Bodhisattvas
Japan, Kamakura or Muromachi period, early 14th century
Ink, gold, and color on silk
Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1911.475

All That Glitters Is Not Gold

While the term kintsugi (literally, “gold joinery”) emphasizes the use of gold on a surface, lacquer is central to this repair technique. Bulking agents such as wheat flour, paper, or cloth are mixed with lacquer to create a paste that fills cracks, adheres broken pieces, and reconstructs missing pieces of a ceramic. After the repair is cured and stabilized, the surface is painted with raw lacquer and sprinkled with gold powder as a food-safe surface treatment. Kintsugi reflects the care collectors had for precious yet broken items, and in some cases, the entrepreneurial spirit of a clever art dealer. Typically, kintsugi repairs trace lines of breakage, but artisans would sometimes add their own flair, as with the vine-like veins on F1904.323.

Individual serving bowl in the shape of a sedge hat
Japan, Kyoto prefecture, Kyoto, Kiyomizu kilns, Edo period, late 17th century
Kyoto ware
Stoneware with iron pigment under translucent white glaze; gold lacquer repairs
Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1897.15

Bowl with low foot and straight vertical lip
Japan, Saga or Nagasaki prefecture, Sasebo, Edo period, 1700–1850
Kihara or Hasami ware
Coarse porcelain with cobalt decoration under translucent glaze; gold lacquer repairs
Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1897.76

Tea bowl
Japan, Kagoshima prefecture, Edo period, 17th century
Satsuma ware, White Satsuma type
Stoneware with clear, crackled glaze, stained by ink; gold lacquer repairs
Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1904.323

Tableware bowl, used in Japan as tea bowl
Korea, Gyeongsang-do province, Jōseon period, mid-15th century
Buncheong ware
Stoneware with white inlay under clear, pale green glaze; maki-e lacquer repair
Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1904.114

Tea bowl
Japan, Saga prefecture, Edo period, 1750–1850
Karatsu ware
Stoneware with wood-ash glaze; gold lacquer repairs
Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1897.70

Remounting Paintings

The idea of Zhong Kui, slayer of demons, originated in China. Roaming the world at night with his retinue of demons, Zhong Kui was a much-beloved kind of folk hero. He appears in countless images in Japan as well, where he was adopted as a way to ward off illnesses. These paintings have been in the museum’s collections for over a century. Following conservation trends of the late nineteenth century, many hanging scrolls were remounted onto panels and then framed. Over time, our conservators have aimed to return these works to their original format. This set of three hanging scrolls was remounted and conserved in recent years with support from the Sumitomo Foundation.

Zhong Kui (Shoki) on a tiger and Birds and flowers
Japan, Edo period, 18th century
Ink and color on paper
Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1905.261–263

Twigs of Desire

Female woodcutters have long been a subject of poetic fascination and erotic projection in traditional Japanese painting. The manual yet elegant labor of gathering flowering twigs was often idealized and objectified by the largely male contingent of poets and painters. The theme carried on into Japan’s modern age with images like this one. The painter, Ōkōchi Yakō, recast the theme in traditional pigments but with a new twist, where the colors look like they have been made by crayons or watercolors, evoking Western painting techniques.

Spring in Ōhara in Northern Kyoto
Ōkōchi Yakō (1892–1957)
Japan, Taishō era, 1920s
Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
The Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection, Gift of Mary and Cheney Cowles, F2019.3.23a–c