Tea bowl named Ochiba (Fallen Leaves), Takatori or Yatsushiro ware

Object Details

• Description

  Tea bowl, almost cylindrical with straight sides tapering slightly inward and high, square-cut foot.

  Name: Ochiba [Jpn].

  Clay: gray stoneware, medium texture, fired reddish brown.

  Glaze: yellowish buff and iron brown with rust-like patches and some greenish flow. Foot unglazed.

  Decoration: glaze only.

• Label

  The potter applied three different glazes to achieve a patchwork effect popular on ceramics, textiles, and lacquered objects of the early seventeenth century. The bowl's name, Fallen Leaves, refers to this mottled coloration-or perhaps to the inspired addition of the "finger-painted" spots. Freer appreciated this "very beautiful specimen."

• Provenance

  To 1897

  Bunkio Matsuki (1867-1940), Boston, to 1897 [1]

  From 1897 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Bunkio Matsuki in 1897 [2]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Pottery List, 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

  Cornucopia: Ceramics of Southern Japan (December 19, 2009 to January 9, 2011)

  Freer and Tea: 100 Years of The Book of Tea (November 19, 2005 to May 29, 2006)

  Japanese Art (November 7, 1986 to July 19, 1988)

  Japanese and Chinese Lacquer (September 22, 1982 to June 30, 1983)

  Japanese Lacquer (April 16, 1979 to October 8, 1980)

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

• Previous custodian or owner

  Bunkio Matsuki 松木文恭 (1867-1940) (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  possibly Shirahatayama kiln, Fukuoka prefecture, Japan

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Vessel

• Restrictions and Rights

  CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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• 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, Matsuki, Bunkio

• Place

  Fukuoka prefecture, Shirahatayama kiln, Japan

• Topic

  Tea, Charles Lang Freer collection, Takatori ware, Art, Stoneware, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Ceramics

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)