Incense burner with design of mountain retreat

Object Details

• Artist

  Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743) , Chojiyamachi workshop

• Description

  Small, cylindrical; low, retired foot. Gold lacquer repair.

  Clay: hard, dense, grayish. Stoneware.

  Glaze: transparent, appearing lustrous cream-white; overflow of pinkish-fawn.

  Decoration: in gosu (agrolite, an impure cobalt oxide) under glaze. Pavilion and landscape.

• Signatures

  Kenzan

• Inscriptions

  Inscription.

• Label

  The overall composition suggests a handscroll wrapped around the vessel. The poem, appropriate to the high-minded flavor of the mountain retreat, may be paraphrased thus:

  Indifferent to expense, they built a lofty golden terrace

  Settled here in seclusion, my mind has turned to ashes.

  The poem alludes to a well-known series of linked verses called Jingqiu langu (Reflections on Jingqiu) composed by Chen Ziang (661-702).

  The absence of glaze on the interior shows the vessel was made not as a tea bowl but as an incense burner. It has been suggested that the use of the character "ash," connoting "extinction," at the end of the poem relates to the use of this piece as an incense burner (the incense is laid over a bed of ash). The harmonization of visual and literary imagery with actual deployment is a fitting example of the first Kenzan's total approach.

• Provenance

  To 1898

  Bunkio Matsuki (1867-1940), Boston, to 1898 [1]

  From 1898 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Bunkio Matsuki in 1898 [2]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Pottery List, L. 438, 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

  Rinpa: Creativity Across Time and Space (October 1, 2022 to April 2, 2023)

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

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

  Japanese Arts in the Edo Period: 1615-1868, part 2 (March 8 to October 19, 2008)

  Landscapes in Japanese Art (February 2 to July 15, 2007)

  Japanese Arts in the Edo Period: 1615-1868, part 1 (August 18, 2007 to February 24, 2008)

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

  Japanese Art (April 13 to November 21, 1995)

  Ceramics by Ogata Kenzan (October 9, 1980 to October 30, 1980)

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

  Special Exhibition—Japanese Art (October 16, 1963 to August 18, 1967)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Bunkio Matsuki 松木文恭 (1867-1940) (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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  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

  Kyoto, Japan, Kyoto prefecture

• Topic

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

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)