Iga-style vase

Object Details

• Artist

  Takahashi Rakusai III (1898-1976)

• Description

  Vase in style of Momoyama-period Iga ware, with cylindrical body, large trumpet mouth rising from squared shoulders, and paired, hand-modeled lugs attached to shoulder and lower wall of mouth.

  Clay: Shigaraki stoneware clay, light gray firing to warm red on surface, with numerous white spots caused by melted feldspar granules.

  Glaze: thick, greenish, translucent, crackled wood-ash glaze applied to exterior "front" of neck and upper body, and interior of neck facing the "front," as well as to exterior "back" of neck, running onto shoulder and body. This glaze was applied to the bisque-fired vessel to recreate the effects of "natural ash glaze" glaze developing from wood ash deposited directionally in the course of firing. The vessel was fired on the floor of a front chamber of a multi-chamber climbing kiln, where in addition it received a dusting of wood ash on the front-facing surfaces, producing a golden-brown glossy surface. The lower half of the body and edges of the base were blackened by standing in a thick layer of ash.

  Decoration: while still damp, the wheel-thrown form was modeled at the rim, shoulder, and base; five elongated X's were incised around the neck and seven curving vertical lines were incised (from top to bottom) around the body.

  Accessories: yellow cotton wrapper (probably new); original paulownia-wood box with inscription.

• Marks

  Round seal with relief characters "Rakusai" impressed on base.

  Round seal with relief characters "Rakusai" impressed on base.

• Inscriptions

  Original paulownia-wood box inscribed on the front of the lid by the artist: "Iga mimitsuki hanaire [Iga vase with lugs].

• Provenance

  Ogawa Ken'ichi, Gifu, Japan, purchased from Takahashi Rakusai [1]

  To 1998

  Mr. Tetsuya Ogawa, Ogaki, Gifu, Japan, given by Ogawa Ken'ichi, to 1998 [2]

  From 1998

  Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, given by Mrs. Chieko and Mr. Tetsuya Ogawa in 1998

  Notes:

  [1] In a conversation in Ogaki, Japan, on November 16, 1998, donor Ogawa Chieko explained that her husband's father, Ogawa Ken'ichi, bought many ceramic pieces from Takahashi Rakusai and gave them to his nine children and to other relatives one year on the anniversary (meinichi) of his mother's death.

  The Japanese term for such gifts is hikimono.

  Mrs. Ogawa does not remember which year the vases were distributed as gifts, but it was at least fifty years ago, either during or just after World War II.

  She does not know how Ogawa Ken'ichi might have known about Takahashi Rakusai, although she recalled that a teacher of tea ceremony based in Nagoya and trained in the Omote Senke school of tea built a tea house in the town in Gifu Prefecture where Ogawa Ken'ichi lived, and she suggested that the tea teacher might have made the introduction.

  Mr. and Mrs. Ogawa were my host parents when I was an American Field Service exchange student during the summer of 1961.

  I saw this vase during a visit to their home in 1997 (according to Provenance Remark 1, Louise Cort, August 13, 1999, in the object record).

  [2] See note 1.

• Collection

  National Museum of Asian Art Collection

• Previous custodian or owner

  Mr. and Mrs. Tetsuya Ogawa

• Origin

  Shigaraki, Shiga prefecture, Japan

• Credit Line

  Gift of Chieko and Tetsuya Ogawa

• Type

  Vessel

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1940s, 1930s

• Name

  Ogawa, Tetsuya

• Place

  Shiga prefecture, Japan, Shigaraki

• Topic

  Art, Showa era (1926 - 1989), Stoneware, Shigaraki ware, Japanese Art, Ceramics

• Culture

  Japanese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)