Incense box with Rinpa-style design of stag head, unknown Raku ware workshop

Object Details

• Description

  Clay: soft, buff.

  Glaze: lustrous, pale-green over salmon-pink; crackled and pitted. Misfired Red Raku glaze.

  Decoration: stag head in cavo-relievo.

• Provenance

  Prince Konoe Iehiro (1667-1736), Kyoto [1]

  To 1901

  Bunkio Matsuki (1867-1940), Boston, to 1901 [2]

  From 1901 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Bunkio Matsuki in 1901 [3]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] According to a note by Bunkio Matsuki, from Curatorial Remarks, Envelope File: "Formerly possessed by Prince Konaye Iyetero of Kioto, famous Art Connoisseur Okura Kan-Sui (1700-1730) certify on the box." According to Louise A. Cort in the Curatorial Remarks, 1987: "There is no one in the main line of the Edo-period Konoe house by that name, but Matsuki may have meant Konoe Iehiro (hiro can also be read as teru). Prince Iehiro (1667-1736), known as Yorakuin, rose through various government offices to hold the position of Kampaku, but he is perhaps best remembered for his connoisseurship in the tea ceremony and flower arranging (Genshoku Chado Daijiten, pg. 365). Matsuki's information presumably was based on the attribution of the calligraphy on the box lid to Iehiro by the connoisseur Okura Kansui."

  [2] See Original Pottery List, L. 1069, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

  [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

  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)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Konoe Iehiro (1667-1736)

  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

  Container

• Restrictions and Rights

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  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1700s, 1710s, 1720s, 1900s, 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, Konoe, Iehiro

• Place

  Kyoto, Japan, Kyoto prefecture

• Topic

  Art, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Incense, Japanese Art, Pottery, Meiji era (1868 - 1912), Raku ware

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Containers