Tea bowl, possibly Agano ware

Tea bowl, goki shape, on high spreading foot. Gold lacquer repair.
Clay: medium, fired grayish brown. Fine purplish cream color.
Glaze: thin, transparent, fine crackle. Covers most of foot. Five shijimi shell spurmarks on footim.
Decoration: brushed slip under the glaze.

Historical period(s)
Edo period, 1620-1650
Medium
Stoneware with white slip under wood-ash glaze
Style
Karatsu ware or Agano ware
Dimensions
H x Diam: 8.4 × 14.8 cm (3 5/16 × 5 13/16 in)
Geography
Japan, Saga or Fukuoka prefecture
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1898.63
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Tea bowl

Keywords
Agano ware, Edo period (1615 - 1868), Japan, stoneware, tea
Provenance

To 1898
Yamanaka & Company, New York to 1898 [1]

From 1898 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Yamanaka & Company in 1898 [2]

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

Notes:

[1] See Original Pottery List, L. 557, 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, goki shape, on high spreading foot. Gold lacquer repair.
Clay: medium, fired grayish brown. Fine purplish cream color.
Glaze: thin, transparent, fine crackle. Covers most of foot. Five shijimi shell spurmarks on footim.
Decoration: brushed slip under the glaze.

Label

According to museum records, Charles Lang Freer believed this bowl was Hagi ware, but modern scholars still do not agree on where it was made. The streaks on the surface are the marks of a stiff brush that the potter rubbed over the bowl after he had dipped the bowl into white clay solution (slip). This is an unusual variation of the technique of brushing on slip with a coarse straw brush, which originated on utilitarian Korean pottery and became popular in Japan for tea utensils.

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