Storage Jar

Very large glazed storage jar, dark brown stoneware with rounded body tapering to an almost flat base. The base is uneven and the jar does not sit perfectly flat. Green-gray glaze scattered over the upper body and shoulder, thicker in areas, with a large area of thick gray, overfired glaze on one side. Thick drips of glaze run down the body. Wide combed grooves are incised within a “panel” outlined by horizontal lines around the upper body and shoulder.

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Historical period(s)
Muromachi period, 15th century
Medium
Stoneware with natural ash glaze
Style
Bizen ware
Dimensions
H x Diam (overall): 51 x 37.7 cm (20 1/16 x 14 13/16 in)
Geography
Japan, Okayama prefecture, Imbe, Bizen kilns
Credit Line
Purchase — funds provided by the Friends of Asian Arts
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1998.25
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Jar (tsubo)

Keywords
Bizen ware, Japan, Muromachi period (1333 - 1573), stoneware
Provenance

To 1998
Harry and Hideo G. Packard, Kyoto, purchased from an unidentified owner, to 1998 [1]

From 1998
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Hideo G. Packard in 1998

Notes:

[1] According to Curatorial Note 6 in the object record.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Hideo G. Packard
Harry Packard

Description

Very large glazed storage jar, dark brown stoneware with rounded body tapering to an almost flat base. The base is uneven and the jar does not sit perfectly flat. Green-gray glaze scattered over the upper body and shoulder, thicker in areas, with a large area of thick gray, overfired glaze on one side. Thick drips of glaze run down the body. Wide combed grooves are incised within a "panel" outlined by horizontal lines around the upper body and shoulder.

Label

Sturdy unglazed jars made in Bizen province (modern Okayama prefecture) had long been used in kitchens and storerooms. With the emerging popularity of the ritualized form of tea preparation called chanoyu, Bizen jars also came to the attention of urban connoisseurs, who used them to store tea. They also discerned—in the mottled coloration of the unglazed surface and the random deposits of wood ash—an austere beauty that they described as the jar’s “landscape.” This perception of the “landscapes” on jars from Bizen, as well as from Shigaraki, forms the first recorded aesthetic appreciation of unglazed stoneware, a preference
that has remained central to Japanese taste in ceramics.

Published References
  • History of Design: Decorative Arts and Material Culture, 1400-2000. .
  • Thomas Lawton, Thomas W. Lentz. Beyond the Legacy: Anniversary Acquisitions for the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. vol. 1 Washington, 1998. pp. 280-281.
Collection Area(s)
Japanese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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