Square dish with design of Twelfth Month, after Fujiwara Teika, Poems of the Twelve Months

Object Details

• Artist

  Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743)

  Narutaki workshop (active 1699-1712)

• Description

  Clay: dense, sonorous, grayish. Raku-type.

  Glaze: brilliant, irridescent, transparent, crackled; lead glaze over white slip.

  Decoration: in color, under glaze; cobalt, under glaze on sides and base; iron pigment around rim.

• Signatures

  Kenzan Shoko Shinsei [Jpn] (followed by cipher, kao)

• Label

  The size, the underlying decoration of colored swatches on the back simulating the traditional cloud-patterned paper kumogami, and the composition of the poetry all suggest the format of the poem card, or shikishi, a heavy-paper card used for inscribing poetry. The theme of the painting is one of twelve vignettes of birds and flowers of the twelve months based on paired poems by Fujiwara Teika (1162-1241). The dish illustrates the twelfth month:

  Plum blossoms:

  It is that time when snow buries the colors of the hedge,

  Yet a branch of plum is blooming, on "this side" of the New Year.

  Mandarin duck:

  The snow falls on the ice of the pond on which I gaze,

  piling up as does this passing year on all years past,

  And on the feathered coat of the mandarin duck, the "bird of regret."

  Teika verse translations by Edward Kamens in Word in Flower, ed. Carolyn

  Wheelwright (New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1989)

• 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, no. 1654 [2]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Pottery List, L. 1371, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Also see Curatorial Remark 18, 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

  Feathered Ink (August 27, 2022 to February 20, 2023)

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

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

  Real and Imagined Places in Japanese Art (March 4 to October 21, 2001)

  Telling Tales in Japanese Art (November 23, 1996 to August 14, 1997)

  Kyoto Ceramics (November 9, 1984 to April 25, 1985)

  Japanese Ceramics (June 22, 1982 to September 27, 1982)

  Japanese Ceramics (July 15, 1980 to June 21, 1982)

  Japanese Ceramics/Puppets (June 16, 1980 to July 14, 1980)

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

  Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons in Japanese Art (September 14, 1977 to April 8, 1978)

  Japanese Calligraphy (April 18, 1977 to September 13, 1977)

  Japanese Art (October 2, 1975 to October 8, 1976)

  Japanese Paintings Attributed to Iwasa Matabei (July 1, 1974 to October 1, 1975)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Thomas E. Waggaman (1839-1906)

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

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  Kyoto, Kyoto prefecture, 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

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

• Place

  Kyoto, Japan, Kyoto prefecture

• Topic

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

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)