Water jar or incense burner with design of maple leaves

Object Details

• Artist

  Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743)

  Edo-Iriya Workshop

• Description

  Tea ceremony freshwater jar in the style of Dutch earthenware. Jar, globular, low foot set slightly inside base. Brass cover.

  Clay: medium gray stoneware

  Glaze: cream colored, crackled and somewhat stained.

  Decoration: green network framing red, blue, black, and yellow leaves in overglaze enamels.

  Signed Kenzan on base.

• Signatures

  Signed Kenzan on base.

• Label

  The shape of this vessel is exotic, recalling something nonindigenous such as Delft or even more so Italian Majolica ware. The decoration is in the Kenzan traditon, recalling camellia designs depicted in white against a green ground; this was a stock Kenzan-ware item in the second quarter of the eighteenth century.

  In additon, this piece has a bronze cover with a reticulated design of cherry blossoms. The cover in effect turns the exotic vessel form into an incense burner. There is also a clumsily executed overglaze enamel leaf design in the bottom of the jar.

  Two similar pieces exist, another in the Freer collection (F1904.358) and one in the collection of the Idemitsu Museum of Art, Tokyo.

• Provenance

  To 1905

  K. Suzuki, New York, to 1905 [1]

  From 1905 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from K. Suzuki in 1905 [2]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Pottery List, L. 1341, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Also, Curatorial Remark 13, Louise Cort, June 17,

  2008, in the object record, states: "The dealer who sold Freer this bowl, K. Suzuki, was in New York when he wrote a letter to Edward Sylvester Morse dated 17 February 1905. This was the only time Freer purchased works from him."

  [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

  K. Suzuki (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  Iriya, Tokyo, Japan

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Vessel

• 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

  Suzuki, K., Freer, Charles Lang

• Place

  Iriya, Tokyo, Japan

• Topic

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

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)