Handwarmer with design of vine scrolls

Object Details

• Artist

  School of Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743)

  Ogata Ihachi (Kyoto Kenzan II) (active 1720-1760)

• Description

  Clay: hard, dense, light-gray stoneware.

  Glaze: transparent; crackled. Lower interior wall and bottom unglazed.

  Decoration: in dull red, green, brown, yellow, blue, and gold, overglaze enamels.

  Contains signature on the base.

• Signatures

  Kenzan, written in iron pigment on base.

  Kenzan, written in iron pigment on base.

• Label

  The general proportions and metal fitting suggest the function of this vessel as a small handwarmer; it would have been filled with ash, with live embers set inside. The rectilinear form in general borrows from Kenzan-ware precedents, although this six-sided shape has a more distant ancestry in Ming dynasty incense burners; mass-produced connoisseur's manuals bestowed approval on the six-sided shape.

  The painted surface is a mix of elements taken from late-Ming, common-ware porcelains imported into Japan in the early seventeenth century. The cloud band at the top appears, for example, in the underglaze blue porcelains called undo-de in Japan. There is also a good dose of the Kenzanesque, such as the flatly rendered flowers.

• Provenance

  1911

  Y. Fujita and Company, Kyoto 1911 [1]

  From 1911 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Y. Fujita and Company, Kyoto in 1911 [2]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Pottery List, L. 2187, 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 Potter's Brush: The Kenzan Style in Japanese Ceramics (December 9, 2001 to October 27, 2002)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Y. Fujita and Company (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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• 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, Fujita

• Place

  Kyoto, Japan, Kyoto prefecture

• Topic

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

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Containers