Incense or seal ink container with design of magpie and maidenflower for the seventh month

Object Details

• Artist

  Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743)

  Narutaki workshop (active 1699-1712)

• Description

  Incense box, (kogo), flat, of irregular outline. Cover.

  Clay: fine-grained buff stoneware.

  Glaze: transparent.

  Decoration: in cobalt and iron pigments and white slip under glaze. Green and yellow enamel and gold over glaze. Cinnabar on interior.

  Inscription on base.

• Signatures

  Kenzan

• Inscriptions

  Inscription on base.

• Label

  The theme of this decoration (see also F1900.72) is both auspicious and literary, deriving from a poem sequence on birds and flowers of the twelve months by Fujiwara Teika (1162-1241).

  Maidenflower:

  Maidenflower, not seen except in autumn:

  Have you made a pledge to greet the sky in which the lover-stars converge?

  Magpie:

  Having promised to join your wings with others through the whole night,

  Magpies, have you waited all this time for autumn's coming

  to make the bridge for the lovers' crossing?

  Teika verse translations by Edward Kamens in Word in Flower, ed. Carolyn Wheelwright (New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1989)

• Provenance

  To 1903

  Bunkio Matsuki (1867-1940), Boston, to 1903 [1]

  From 1903 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Bunkio Matsuki in 1903 [2]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] Undated folder sheet note. See Original Pottery List, L. 1246, 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 Arts of Japan (July 14, 2012 to January 13, 2013)

  Seasons: Arts of Japan (February 5, 2011 to January 13, 2013)

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

• 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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  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, Matsuki, Bunkio

• Place

  Kyoto, Japan, Kyoto prefecture

• Topic

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

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Containers