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
- 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 Cultural Institute
- See more items in
- Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
- Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
- Topic
- lacquer
- ceramic
- Bizen ware
- Edo period (1615 - 1868)
- water
- tea
- Japan
- stoneware
- Japanese Art
- Charles Lang Freer collection
- Record ID
- fsg_F1900.23a-b
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ye384131962-7d1c-4124-b2a9-6c26ef1b1269
