Hagi ware sake bottle with faceted sides

Sake bottle with faceted sides.
Clay: hard, dense, grayish.
Glaze: brilliant blended cream, pink, gray, and blue; finely crackled; slightly iridescent. Rice-straw ash glaze.
Inscription on base, in ink.

Historical period(s)
Edo period, 19th century
Medium
Stoneware with rice-straw ash glaze
Style
Hagi ware
Dimensions
H x W: 24.5 x 16.6 cm (9 5/8 x 6 9/16 in)
Geography
Japan, Yamaguchi prefecture, Nagato, Fukawa kilns
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1911.385
On View Location
Freer Gallery 12: The Peacock Room Comes to America
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Sake bottle (tokkuri)

Keywords
Edo period (1615 - 1868), Hagi ware, iridescence, Japan, sake, stoneware, water, wine
Provenance

To 1911
Kita Toranosuke, Kyoto, to 1911 [1]

From 1911 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Kita Toranosuke, Kyoto, in 1911 [2]

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

Notes:

[1] See Original Pottery List, L. 2172, 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)

Kita Toranosuke (C.L. Freer source)
Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919

Description

Sake bottle with faceted sides.
Clay: hard, dense, grayish.
Glaze: brilliant blended cream, pink, gray, and blue; finely crackled; slightly iridescent. Rice-straw ash glaze.
Inscription on base, in ink.

Inscription(s)

Inscription on base, in ink.

Label

Hagi ware, made at a kiln in southern Japan founded in the early seventeenth century by immigrant Korean potters, is famed for its tea bowls. Hagi potters also made a range of tableware and serving vessels such as this sake bottle. The faceted bottle bears Hagi's trademark milky white glaze, formulated with rice-straw ash. 

Collection Area(s)
Japanese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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