Incense container in the shape of toy top

Object Details

• Artist

  Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743)

  Edo-Iriya Workshop

• Description

  Clay: earthenware, grayish.

  Glaze: lead glaze, Box: brilliant dark gray; Cover: cream, crackled; Inside: dark green.

  Decoration: rings of black, blue, red-orange, brown, green and yellow, in overglaze enamels.

• Signatures

  Signature

• Inscriptions

  Inscription. Written on base.

• Label

  This deceptively simple object probably carries at least two levels of meaning and was intended to amuse a sophisticated audience. With its childlike painting, the ceramic box resembles a child's toy top made of painted wood. It also replicates in clay a type of imported luxury item that Japanese collectors interpreted as "tops"--a form of Chinese lacquer box from the late Ming dynasty (sixteenth to seventeenth century) decorated with polychrome concentric circles. Both lacquer boxes and ceramic versions of them were used in the tea ceremony as a container for pellets of incense. This box was made by Ogata Kenzan at the end of his life, when he lived in Edo (modern Tokyo).

• Provenance

  Matsumoto Collection, Kyoto [1]

  To 1900

  Bunkio Matsuki (1867-1940), Boston, to 1900 [2]

  From 1900 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Bunkio Matsuki in 1900 [3]

  From 1920

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [4]

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Pottery List, L. 744, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

  [2] See note 1.

  [3] See note 1.

  [4] 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

  Games, Contests and Artful Play in Japan (March 19 to October 23, 2005)

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

• Previous custodian or owner

  Matsumoto Collection

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

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  Tokyo, Japan

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Container

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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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, Matsumoto Collection, Matsuki, Bunkio

• Place

  Tokyo, Japan

• Topic

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

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Containers