Sake bottle with landscape decoration

Object Details

• Artist

  Decoration attributed to Kano Tangen (1679-1767)

• Description

  Sake bottle, flattened gourd-shape.

  Clay: dense, gray-white.

  Glaze: lustrous grayish-white, minutely crackled. Ten spur marks around perimeter of oval base.

  Decoration: in cobalt, under glaze. Kano-style landscape.

• Label

  From the early seventeenth century, potters in Satsuma province (modern Kagoshima prefecture) made fine white stoneware ceramics for warrior rulers of the province to use in entertaining and for obligatory gift exchanges. The warriors also commissioned a locally based artist named Tangen, who had trained in a Kano workshop in Edo, to paint delicate landscape designs on the white ceramics, using cobalt blue pigment. This decoration, which conveyed the subtle tonalities of ink paintings, became a trademark of Satsuma ceramics.

• Provenance

  To 1905

  Thomas E. Waggaman (1839-1906), Washington, DC, to 1905 [1]

  From 1905 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased at the sale of the Waggaman Collection, American Art Association, New York, NY, January 25-February 3, 1905 [2]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Pottery List, L. 1354, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Also see Curatorial Remark 16, Louise Cort, June 17, 2008, 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 Peacock Room Comes to America [2022] (September 3, 2022 - ongoing)

  The Peacock Room Comes to America [2017-2019] (October 14, 2017 to January 2, 2019)

  The Peacock Room Comes to America [2011-2016] (April 9, 2011 to January 4, 2016)

  Cornucopia: Ceramics of Southern Japan (December 19, 2009 to January 9, 2011)

  Landscapes in Japanese Art (February 2 to July 15, 2007)

  Whistler & Japan (May 14, 1995 to January 1, 1996)

  Garden Potteries and Official Kilns: Clan-Sponsored Ceramics in the Edo Period (January 16, 1986 to November 3, 1986)

  James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art: Artist and Patron (May 11, 1984 to January 17, 1985)

  Japanese Ceramics (April 11, 1978 to January 17, 1980)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Thomas E. Waggaman (1839-1906)

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

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  Hiyamizu kiln, Kagoshima, Kagoshima prefecture, Japan

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Vessel

• On View

  Freer Gallery 12: The Peacock Room Comes to America

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

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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

  Waggaman, Thomas E., American Art Association, Freer, Charles Lang

• Place

  Kagoshima, Hiyamizu kiln, Japan, Kagoshima prefecture

• Topic

  Wine and wine making, Charles Lang Freer collection, Landscapes, Art, Stoneware, Satsuma ware, Satsuma ware, White Satsuma type, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Ceramics, Sake

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)

• On View

  Yes