Bottle

Object Details

• Description

  Hexagonal vase or sake bottle with small flaring mouth.

  Clay: white porcelain.

  Glaze: Dark coffee brown around bottom with white running unevenly down from the top.

  Decoration: On white glaze at the shoulder and upper part, two hawks and branches of chestnut trees in colored enamels and gilding.

• Label

  An undulating line divides the brown-glazed and white surfaces of this body in the same manner that contemporary kimono designs separated the garment's surfaces into areas of differing colors. For a kimono, the design of two hawks in a chestnut tree would have been hand-painted or embroidered; here, it is rendered with colored enamels and gilding. In the language of Japanese design, both chestnuts and hawks connote masculine bravery. This Imari-style bottle was probably designed for the domestic market.

• Provenance

  To 1965

  Setsu Gatodo, Tokyo, Japan. [1]

  From 1965

  Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Setsu Gatodo, Tokyo, Japan. [2]

  Notes:

  [1] Curatorial Remark 1 in the object record.

  [2] See note 1.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

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

  Summer Whites: Japanese Porcelain (July 1, 1983 to March 15, 1984)

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

  Bicentennial Exhibition: Japanese Art (December 15, 1975 to November 10, 1976)

  Japanese Art—Paintings, Pottery (August 18, 1967 to September 20, 1971)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Setsu Gatodo

• Origin

  Higuchi kiln, Nangawara, Arita, Saga prefecture, Japan

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

• Type

  Vessel

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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• Name

  Gatodo, Setsu

• Place

  Nangawara, Japan, Saga prefecture, Arita, Higuchi kiln

• Topic

  Wine and wine making, Porcelain, Art, Arita ware, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Ceramics, Sake

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)