Inkyuzan ware tea bowl in Goki shape, with impressed cipher

Tea-bowl, deep ovoid, on high spreading notched foot.
Goki [JPN] shape.
Clay: hard, dense, grayish. Orange flush on surface.
Glaze: grayish-white with slight greenish tinge, flushed with faint mauve-pink; crackled.
Impressed mark: Cipher of Ikeda Nakamasa, on body near foot.

Historical period(s)
Edo period, ca. 1804-1825
Medium
Stoneware with rice-hull-ash glaze
Style
Inkyuzan ware
Dimensions
H x Diam: 10.9 × 13.7 cm (4 5/16 × 5 3/8 in)
Geography
Japan, Tottori prefecture
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1897.50
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Tea bowl (gokijawan)

Keywords
Edo period (1615 - 1868), Inaba ware, Inkyuzan type, Japan, stoneware, tea
Provenance

To 1897
Yamanaka & Company, New York to 1897 [1]

From 1897 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Yamanaka & Company in 1897 [2]

From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

Notes:

[1] See Original Pottery List, L. 493, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

[2] See note 1.

[3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919
Yamanaka and Co. (C.L. Freer source) 1917 - 1965

Description

Tea-bowl, deep ovoid, on high spreading notched foot.
Goki [JPN] shape.
Clay: hard, dense, grayish. Orange flush on surface.
Glaze: grayish-white with slight greenish tinge, flushed with faint mauve-pink; crackled.
Impressed mark: Cipher of Ikeda Nakamasa, on body near foot.

Label

The cipher impressed near the foot of this bowl is that of Ikeda Nakamasa, head of a branch of the Tottori clan. Nakamasa commissioned such bowls at the Imkyuzan pottery sponsored by the main Ikeda house. The bowls were probably executed by a potter who was brought in shortly after 1800 from the large ceramic center of Shigaraki.

Collection Area(s)
Japanese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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