Incense container with design of Narrow Ivy Road

Maker(s)
Artist: Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743) Narutaki workshop (active 1699-1712)
Historical period(s)
Edo period, 1699-1712
Medium
Stoneware with white slip, cobalt and iron pigments under clear glaze, enamels over glaze
Dimensions
H x W x D: 2.5 x 10 x 7.3 cm (1 x 3 15/16 x 2 7/8 in)
Geography
Japan, Kyoto prefecture, Kyoto
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1907.84a-b
On View Location
Freer Gallery 06: Rinpa: Creativity Across Time and Space
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Container
Type

Incense box (kogo)

Keywords
Edo period (1615 - 1868), incense, Japan
Provenance

To 1907
Unidentified owner, Japan, to 1907 [1]

From 1907 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased in Japan from an unidentified owner in spring 1907 [2]

From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

Notes:

[1] See Original Pottery List, L. 1562, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

[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.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919

Label

Ogata Kenzan's small, molded box made for incense or seal paste bears a famous scene from the tenth-century literary classic Tales of Ise, in which an exiled courtier composes a poem to be carried back to Kyoto by a wandering ascetic.

Published References
  • Matthias Ostermann. The Ceramic Narrative. London and Philadelphia. fig. 17.
  • Richard L. Wilson, Ogasawara Saeko. Kenzanyaki Nyumon [Introduction to Kenzan Ceramics]. Tokyo. pl. 5.
  • Richard L. Wilson. The Art of Ogata Kenzan: Persona and Production in Japanese Ceramics., 1st ed. New York and Tokyo. fig. 233.
  • Richard L. Wilson. The Potter's Brush: The Kenzan Style in Japanese Ceramics. Exh. cat. Washington. cat. 20, p. 89.
  • Louise Allison Cort. Japanese and Korean Ceramics. vol. 36, no. 1 Hong Kong, January-February 2006. p. 102, fig. 2.
  • Ideals of Beauty: Asian and American Art in the Freer and Sackler Galleries. Thames and Hudson World of Art London and Washington, 2010. p. 161.
  • Miho Museum. Kenzan: A World of Quietly Refined Elegance. Exh. cat. Shiga. p. 240.
Collection Area(s)
Japanese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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