Agano ware tea bowl

Object Details

• Description

  Tea-bowl (chawan [Jpn]), tall, spirally corrugated cylindrical body, bottoms curving down to high thick foot.

  Clay: coarse, dark stoneware.

  Glaze: brownish running to pinkish gray and bluish gray where thick; fine crackle. Interior of foot glazed.

• Label

  Korean potters founded the Agano kilns in Japan and prodced tea bowls like this one, whose rice-straw ash glaze reflects a utilitarian pottery tradition of northern Korea.

• Provenance

  To 1899

  Japanese Trading Company, New York to 1899 [1]

  From 1899 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Japanese Trading Company in 1899 [2]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Pottery List, L. 368, 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

  Imperfectly Beautiful: Inventing Japanese Ceramic Style (October 14, 2017 - October 14, 2019)

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

  Rusticity Refined: Kyoto Ceramics by Ninsei (March 19 to October 23, 2005)

  An Invitation to Tea (November 9, 1996 to April 26, 1998)

  Japanese Screens (May 9, 1993 to November 13, 1995)

  Garden Potteries and Official Kilns: Clan-Sponsored Ceramics in the Edo Period (January 16, 1986 to November 3, 1986)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Japanese Trading Company (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  Kamanokuchi 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, Japanese Trading Company

• Place

  Fukuoka prefecture, Japan, Kamanokuchi kiln

• Topic

  Tea, Charles Lang Freer collection, Art, Momoyama period (1573 - 1615), Stoneware, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Pottery, Ceramics

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)