Incense container with design of Cherry River

Object Details

• Artist

  Style of Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743)

  Kyoto workshop, Kenzan style

• Description

  Lid for fan-shaped incense box (kogo), with later wooden base.

  Clay: stoneware, hard, gray.

  Glaze: transparent, appearing grayish-cream, tinged with blue; crackled; brownish-black on edges.

  Decoration: in white slip and iron and cobalt under pigments under glaze and gold and red enamels over glaze. Blossoming cherry trees by stream.

  Inscription on the base.

• Signatures

  Signature: Kenzan, in rectangular frame, written in iron pigment under glaze on back of lid.

• Inscriptions

  Contains inscription on the base.

• Provenance

  To 1902

  Bunkio Matsuki (1867-1940), Boston, to 1902 [1]

  From 1902 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Bunkio Matsuki in 1902 [2]

  From 1920

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [2]

  Notes:

  [1]

  See Original Pottery List, L. 1195, 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

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

  Fans (May 18, 1980 to October 13, 1981)

• 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

  Container

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1850s, 1870s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Matsuki, Bunkio

• Place

  Kyoto, Japan, Kyoto prefecture

• Topic

  Water, Late Edo period (1716 - 1868), Fans, Art, Cherry tree, Incense, Japanese Art, Cherry blossom, Rivers, Meiji era (1868 - 1912)

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Containers