Six-sided ember pot with design of Tama River of Musashino

Object Details

• Artist

  Miyazaki Tominosuke (fl. 1770s-1830s)

• Description

  Container for live coals; hexagonal bowl on high cylindrical foot.

  Clay: earthenware, light gray.

  Glaze: transparent lead glaze, minutely crackled in brown; iridescent. Lower interior unglazed, coated with iron wash.

  Decoration: In iron pigment and underglaze enamels, autumn landscape, bush clover and chrysanthemums, courtiers and peasants on outside; multi-colored clouds on band inside rim.

• Signatures

  Kenzan, written in iron pigment underglaze on base.

• Label

  The unglazed interior and the shape suggest a pot to hold live embers for lighting pipes. The faceting resembles the folds of a screen. Six Tama (Jeweled) rivers are employed poetically in Japan. This one, identifiable by the cloth-processing vignettes, is the Tama River in Musashino, present-day Tokyo.

• Provenance

  To 1902

  Samuel Colman (1832-1920), New York, NY, and Newport, RI, to 1902 [1]

  From 1902 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased at the sale of the Samuel Colman Collection, American Art Association, New York, March 19-22, 1902 [2]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Pottery List, L. 1150, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Samuel Colman was collecting Asian objects by at least 1880 (see Curatorial Remark 10, Louise Cort, April 20, 2007, in the object record).

  [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)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Samuel Colman (1832-1920)

  American Art Association (established 1883) (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  Edo, Japan

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Vessel

• 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

  American Art Association, Freer, Charles Lang, Colman, Samuel

• Place

  Edo, Japan

• Topic

  Water, Charles Lang Freer collection, Landscapes, Art, Autumn, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Iridescence, Ceramics, Rivers

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)