Object Details
Description
Clay: gray stoneware, very hard.
Glaze: mottled dark brown and yellow with much gravel and slag adhering.
Mark: incised on base.
Marks
Mark: incised on base.
Label
This freshwater jar combines an artfully rusticated surface with a shape based on a lacquered wooden box used to store a courtier's hat. In a tea gathering, the freshwater jar holds cold water used to replenish the kettle. Bizen ware was favored for freshwater jars because of the dark, mellow coloration of its fine-grained clay. A Bizen potter threw this thin-walled jar on a wheel, then pressed it into a squared form. A coating of iron-rich clay solution, called slip, intensified the color, which acquired further depth during firing where drifts of wood ash from the burning fuel landed and melted. Before a tea gathering the jar would have been soaked in water to bring out the nuances of the coloration.
Provenance
To 1900
Yamanaka & Company, to 1900 [1]
From 1900 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Yamanaka & Company in 1900 [2]
From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
Notes:
[1] See Original Pottery List, L. 64, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. The majority of Charles Lang Freer’s purchases from Yamanaka & Company were made at its New York branch. Yamanaka & Company maintained branch offices, at various times, in Boston, Chicago, London, Peking, Shanghai, Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto. During the summer, the company also maintained seasonal locations in Newport, Bar Harbor, and Atlantic City.
[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.
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Exhibition History
Seasons: Tea (February 5 to August 7, 2011)
Seasons: Arts of Japan (February 5, 2011 to January 13, 2013)
The Potter's Mark: Tea Ceramics and Their Makers (August 18, 2007 to February 24, 2008)
Freer and Tea: 100 Years of The Book of Tea (November 19, 2005 to May 29, 2006)
The Tea Ceremony in Japan X (April 3 to November 28, 1999)
Japanese Art (May 9, 1993 to November 21, 1995)
Japanese Ceramics from Past to Present (February 18, 1983 to February 16, 1984)
Previous custodian or owner
Yamanaka and Co. 山中商会 (1917-1965) (C.L. Freer source)
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Date
1625-1650
Period
Edo period
Accession Number
F1900.23a-b
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Vessel
Medium
Stoneware with brown slip under accidental wood-ash glaze; lacquered wooden lid
Dimensions
H x W: 16.8 x 20.1 cm (6 5/8 x 7 15/16 in)
Style
Bizen ware
Origin
Imbe, Okayama prefecture, Japan
Related Online Resources
Google Arts & Culture
See more items in
National Museum of Asian Art
Data Source
National Museum of Asian Art
Topic
lacquer
ceramic
Bizen ware
Edo period (1615 - 1868)
water
tea
Japan
stoneware
Japanese Art
Charles Lang Freer collection
Link to Original Record
Record ID
fsg_F1900.23a-b