Tea bowl with design of mountain retreat

Object Details

• Artist

  Ogata Ihachi (Kyoto Kenzan II) (active 1720-1760)

• Description

  Gold lacquer repair.

  Clay: hard, fine. Stoneware.

  Glaze: cream, finely crackled.

  Decoration: white slip with iron and impure cobalt under glaze. Pavilion and landscape.

• Signatures

  "Kenzan Sei Sho," (inscribed by Kenzan) with "ji"-style cipher.

• Label

  The poem reads: "In tranquility, the universe is great." The conflation of a vast entity with a small bounded space is a common theme in Zen poetry, and ultimately derives from the early and influential Daoist test Zhuangzi (ca. 3d century B.C.E.) A ceramic prototype with this expression can be seen in kosometsuke, the late-Ming cobalt-decorated porcelains imported into Japan in the early-Edo period. Here, since half the poem is on the outside and half on the inside, the full measure of the verse--and its relation to the enclosed space of the vessel, which "becomes" the universe in metaphor--is revealed either through drinking or otherwise handling the bowl. Serious poetic appreciation thus merges into mischievous "parlor" humor, with parallels in painted sake cups that reveal comical faces or other figures as they are tipped.

• Provenance

  To 1896

  Yamanaka & Company, New York to 1896 [1]

  From 1896 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Yamanaka & Company in 1896 [2]

  From 1920

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Pottery List, L. 481, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

  [2] See note 1.

  [3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Tea Ceramics after Koetsu (June 27, 2015 to January 3, 2016)

  Bold and Beautiful: Rinpa in Japanese Art (June 28, 2015 to January 3, 2016)

  The Potter's Brush: The Kenzan Style in Japanese Ceramics (December 9, 2001 to October 27, 2002)

  Japanese Ceramics (April 11, 1978 to January 17, 1980)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Yamanaka and Co. 山中商会 (1917-1965) (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  Kyoto, Kyoto prefecture, Japan

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Vessel

• Restrictions and Rights

  CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1700s, 1710s, 1720s, 1770s, 1780s, 1790s, 1730s, 1740s, 1750s, 1760s, 1800s, 1810s, 1820s, 1830s, 1610s, 1650s, 1640s, 1630s, 1620s, 1690s, 1840s, 1680s, 1850s, 1670s, 1860s, 1660s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Yamanaka and Co.

• Place

  Kyoto, Japan, Kyoto prefecture

• Topic

  Mountains, Pavilion, Tea, Charles Lang Freer collection, Landscapes, Art, Lacquer repair, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Lacquer, Ceramics

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)