Jian ware tea bowl with metal rim

Object Details

• Description

  With metal rim.

  Clay: coarse, reddish brown stoneware, fired almost black.

  Glaze: thick, black, ferruginous, closely streaked with silvery iridescence, rusty brown near rim.

• Label

  Dark-glazed, dark-bodied bowls from the Jian-ware kilns in northern Fujian Province first entered Japan in the early 13th century, brought back by Japanese Zen monks who had learned the custom of drinking whipped powdered tea during their years of study at Chinese monasteries. Fujian was a center for tea plantations, and the dark, deep-sided, thick-walled bowls from the local kilns were considered without equal for keeping the tea warm after it was prepared directly in the bowl, by whipping a spoonful of powder in boiling water using a bamboo whisk, and for accentuating the fresh green color of the beverage. Japanese called the bowls Temmoku after one of the major monasteries that trained Japanese monks, Tianmushan, in Zhejiang Province.

  The beautiful feathery texture that sometimes developed in the glaze of Temmoku bowls was known as "hare's fur." Since the iron-rich glaze tended to run, leaving the rim bare, owners often had the rough edge covered with a band of gold, silver, brass, or copper.

• Provenance

  To 1952

  Howard Hollis & Co., Cleveland, Ohio. [1]

  From 1952

  Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Howard Hollis & Co., Cleveland, Ohio. [2]

  Notes:

  [1] Curatorial Remark 1 in the object record.

  [2] See note 1.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Mind Over Matter: Zen in Medieval Japan (March 5, 2022 - July 24, 2022)

  Zen, Tea, and Chinese Art in Medieval Japan (December 13, 2014 to June 14, 2015)

  Black and White: Chinese Ceramics from the 10th-14th Centuries (December 18, 2004 to November 7, 2010)

  Japanese and Chinese Lacquer (September 22, 1982 to June 30, 1983)

  Luminous Shadows (April 1, 1982 to June 21, 1982)

  Chinese Ceramics (April 11, 1978 to September 4, 1980)

  Chinese Art (January 1, 1963 to March 6, 1981)

  Untitled Exhibition, Chinese Ceramics (March 7, 1957 to January 1, 1963)

  Centennial Exhibition, Gallery 13 (November 10, 1955 to March 1, 1957)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Howard Hollis and Company (established 1949)

• Origin

  Jian kilns, Fujian province, China

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

• Type

  Vessel

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1100s, 1200s

• Name

  Howard Hollis and Company

• Place

  Jian kilns, China, Fujian province

• Topic

  Tea, Art, Stoneware, Chinese Art, Southern Song dynasty (1127 - 1279), Iridescence, Ceramics, Jian ware

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)