Narrow-necked storage jar

Object Details

• Description

  Narrow-necked storage jar (tsubo), unrefined stoneware clay with natural ash glaze.

• Label

  Between 1100 and 1600, more than eighty regional kilns in Japan manufactured unglazed stoneware vessels in a standard repertory of wide-mouth vats, narrow-necked jars, and mortars. The versatile jars were used for any purpose that required a durable and watertight container, from storing seed grain to fermenting wine to interring cremated remains according to Buddhist practice. The makers of these jars were farmers who occasionally made pottery; thus the jars exhibit a range of skill.

  The most successful of such regional kilns--Bizen, Shigaraki, Tamba, Echizen, and Tokoname--have continued operation to the present day, although technologies and products have changed drastically.

  Although the jar forms shared similarities from kiln to kiln, the colors and textures of local clays characterized the products from individual kilns. In the 1500s, Japanese connoisseurs, who occasionally used such jars instead of imported, glazed Chinese jars for storage of tea leaves, began to express admiration for the subtle coloration of the clay and the effects of ash melting on the unglazed surface. This is the first recorded instance when Asian storage jars were appreciated for their appearance as opposed to their utility.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Hokusai: Japanese Screens (February 18 to July 29, 2012)

  Seasons: Japanese Screens (July 9, 2011 to January 22, 2012)

  Japanese Screens (March 2007 to January 3, 2016)

  Isamu Noguchi and Modern Japanese Ceramics (May 3 to September 7, 2003)

  Storage Jars of Asia (October 29, 2000 to March 10, 2002)

  Selections from the Japanese Collection (March 22 to November 29, 1999)

  Japanese Art (November 7, 1986 to July 19, 1988)

  Japanese Ceramics: from Past to Present (February 18, 1983 to December 16, 1984)

  Japanese Ceramics from Past to Present (February 18, 1983 to February 16, 1984)

• Origin

  Probably Minami Matsuo kilns, Shigaraki, Shiga prefecture, Japan

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

• Type

  Vessel

• 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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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1400s

• Place

  Minami Matsuo kilns, Shiga prefecture, Japan, Shigaraki

• Topic

  Art, Muromachi period (1333 - 1573), Stoneware, Shigaraki ware, Japanese Art, Ceramics

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)