Kyoto ware rice container also used as tea-ceremony water jar

Object Details

• Description

  Container with cover, probably for food; wheel-thrown; straight sides; knobbed, slightly domed cover; foot slightly stepped-in, low and straight on outside, flat unglazed base barely recessed within it; auxiliary lacquer cover.

  Clay: light buff, coarse Shigaraki type pottery.

  Glaze: transparent running to whitish opacity in thickest areas, somewhat uneven thickness, fine crackle, low gloss. Glazed inside cover. Interior has a thin reddish-brown coating, apparently iron oxide, underlying a silvery layer which has some blackened areas. There is crackle in some areas.

  Decoration: overglaze enamels; blue and turquoise, iron-red and gold, the blue and turquoise being thickly applied. Design is achieved by direct application of enamels, no outline being used. Petal contours are in reserve, details incised. One side of container has pair of large peony blossoms, red and blue, flanked by turquoise and blue scrolls and leaves, stamens and one leaf in gold. Same is repeated with variations in number and size of blossoms and in composition of scrolls on other side. Cover: single flower in each color, leaves in three colors and gold; gold-dotted center and rows of chrysanthemum petals outlined in iron-red decorate flattened knob and the relief petal row at its base.

  Wooden storage box (possibly not made for this box).

• Provenance

  To ?

  Yamada Takeji, Japan. [1]

  To 1973

  Takashi Yanagi, Kyoto, Japan. [2]

  From 1973

  Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Takashi Yanagi, Kyoto, Japan. [3]

  Notes:

  [1] Curatorial Remark 13 in the object record. According to Louise Cort’s January 1998 statement: “This water jar formerly belonged to the collection of Yamada Takeji, a Kobe collector and industrialist (involved with iron) who died some twenty years ago. He was a friend of the collectors who formed small private museums in the Kobe/Ashiya area”…

  [2] Freer Gallery of Art Purchase List after 1920 file, Collections Management Office.

  [3] See note 2.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Japanese Arts in the Edo Period: 1615-1868, part 2 (Saturday, March 8, 2008 - Sunday, October 19, 2008)

  Moonlight and Clouds: Silver and Gold in the Arts of Japan (November 11, 2008 to November 11, 2009)

  Japanese Arts in the Edo Period: 1615-1868, part 1 (August 18, 2007 to February 24, 2008)

  Surveying the Collections: Poets and Parties (July 2, 2000 to February 4, 2001)

  Garden Potteries and Official Kilns: Clan-Sponsored Ceramics in the Edo Period (January 16, 1986 to November 3, 1986)

  Kyoto Ceramics (November 9, 1984 to April 25, 1985)

  Japanese Ceramics (June 22, 1982 to September 27, 1982)

  Japanese Ceramics (July 15, 1980 to June 21, 1982)

  Japanese Ceramics/Puppets (June 16, 1980 to July 14, 1980)

  Japanese Ceramics (April 11, 1978 to January 17, 1980)

  Harold P. Stern Memorial Exhibition (April 18, 1977 to September 13, 1977)

  Japanese Art (October 2, 1975 to October 8, 1976)

  Japanese Paintings Attributed to Iwasa Matabei (July 1, 1974 to October 1, 1975)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Yamada Takeji

  Takashi Yanagi

• Origin

  Kyoto, Kyoto 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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  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

  Yamada, Takeji, Takashi, Yanagi

• Place

  Kyoto, Japan, Kyoto prefecture

• Topic

  Tea, Art, Peony, Chrysanthemum, Stoneware, Kyoto ware, Edo period, Japan, (1600 - 1868), Japanese Art, Ceramics, Flowers, Rice

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)