Suzu ware storage jar

Object Details

• Description

  Storage jar with small mouth (tsubo), formed by coiling-and-throwing, finished by paddle and anvil, in several stages, using paddle carved with parallel grooves, creating striated surface on body from neck to near base. Smooth upright, short neck with rim rolled outward. Overall vessel form off balance, with mouth not aligned directly over narrow base.

  Clay: Stoneware, containing numerous small stones, gray on surface as result of firing in heavy reduction.

  Glaze: none. Light dusting of wood-ash "natural glaze" over shoulder, now dissolved, left whitish specks where clay was protected from reduction.

  Decoration: none.

  Mark: short vertical line incised on shoulder just below neck, usually interpreted as "potter's mark."

• Marks

  Short vertical line incised on shoulder just below neck, usually interpreted as "potter's mark."

• 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.

  This gray jar was made at a kiln in a region where the technology of earlier sue ware was adapted to produce heavier, flat-bottomed jars. Potters at such kilns continued to finish the jars with carved wooden paddles, which left their imprint on the textured surface, and the sue-ware firing procedures produced gray surfaces on the jars. Such wares gradually lost their market to kilns producing with more fuel-efficient firing methods, especially to those located near water transportation for efficient distribution.

• Provenance

  Unidentified owner, Japan [1]

  To 1998

  Eric J. Zetterquist, New York, acquired from an unidentified owner in Japan, to 1998 [2]

  From 1998

  Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Eric J. Zetterquist in 1998

  Notes:

  [1] According to Curatorial Note 4, Louise A. Cort, May 7, 1998, in the object record.

  [2] See note 1.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Japanese Art from the Collection (October 26, 2024 - ongoing)

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

  Beyond the Legacy--Anniversary Acquisitions of the Freer Gallery of Art (October 11, 1998 to April 11, 1999)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Eric J. Zetterquist

• Origin

  Suzu kilns, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

• Type

  Vessel

• On View

  Freer Gallery 05: Japanese Art from the Collection

• Restrictions and Rights

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1300s

• Name

  Zetterquist, Eric J.

• Place

  Japan, Ishikawa prefecture, Suzu kilns

• Topic

  Kamakura period (1185 - 1333), Art, Suzu ware, Stoneware, Japanese Art, Ceramics

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)

• On View

  Yes