Set of five Utsutsugawa ware boat-shaped dishes with design of waves and reeds

Object Details

• Description

  Five rectangular shape dishes with scalloped edges (cut away by hand from the wheel-thrown shape) that seem to refer to a particular type of lacquered box with such corners. The dappled pattern was created by applying liquid slip using a soft, flat brush. Graceful blue lines are painted with cobalt (possibly dissolved in white slip to give a milky quality).

  Design of autumn grasses.

  The set of dishes is contained in a recently-made wooden box, tied with a dark blue cord, that was made to hold them. The top of the lid bears an ink inscription: "Utsutsugawa...mukozuke." A paper cover protecting the lid is made from the January page of a 1988 calendar. The plain back of the page, facing outward, bears an ink inscription in a different hand from that of the box lid: "Utsutsugawa / funagata mukozuke [boat-shaped individual serving dishes]...go kyaku [five guests]."

• Provenance

  Private Japanese collection [1]

  To 1999

  Sebastian Izzard, New York, to 1999

  From 1999

  Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Sebastian Izzard in 1999

  Notes:

  [1] The set of objects comes in a modern Japanese box indicating that it was formerly in a private Japanese collection (according to Curatorial Note 6, Louise A. Cort, September 28, 1999, in the object record).

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

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

  Dinner for Five: Japanese Serving Dishes for Elegant Meals (March 4 to October 21, 2001)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Sebastian Izzard Asian Art LLC

• Origin

  Isahaya, Nagasaki prefecture, Japan

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

• Type

  Vessel

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• 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

  Sebastian Izzard Asian Art LLC

• Place

  Isahaya, Nagasaki prefecture, Japan

• Topic

  Art, Stoneware, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Ceramics, Utsutsugawa ware

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)