Oribe ware ewer with designs of blossoming plum branches and various geometic motifs

Light buff clay. Four small lug-shaped feet on base. Underglaze iron painted decoration of blossoming plum branches and various geometric motifs. Clear glaze and copper-tinted green ash glaze, applied separately; base unglazed except at edges; inside unglazed. Ink inscriptions on base and underside of lid.

Historical period(s)
Edo period, 1615-1624
Medium
Stoneware clay with Oribe copper-green glaze and iron pigment under colorless glaze
Style
Mino ware, Oribe type
Dimensions
H x W x D: 19.7 x 20.6 x 20.6 cm (7 3/4 x 8 1/8 x 8 1/8 in)
Geography
Japan, Gifu prefecture, Toki city, Probably Kamagane kilns
Credit Line
Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1969.21a-b
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Ewer

Keywords
Early Edo period (1615 - 1716), Japan, Mino ware, Oribe type, Momoyama period (1573 - 1615), plum blossom, stoneware, tea
Provenance

To 1969
S. Yabumoto Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan. [1]

From 1969
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from S. Yabumoto Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan. [2]

Notes:

[1] Curatorial Remark 1 in the object record.

[2] See note 1.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

S. Yabumoto Co., Ltd.

Description

Light buff clay. Four small lug-shaped feet on base. Underglaze iron painted decoration of blossoming plum branches and various geometric motifs. Clear glaze and copper-tinted green ash glaze, applied separately; base unglazed except at edges; inside unglazed. Ink inscriptions on base and underside of lid.

Inscription(s)

Written in ink on the base of this ewer and on the unglazed bottom of the lid are inscriptions that seem to be owners' marks.

Label

This ewer would have been used to refill the fresh-water jar midway during a tea ceremony.  The patchwork of decorative motifs derives from contemporary tsujigahana textile design, which combined tie-dyed areas of color with hand-drawn motifs on the white ground.

Oribe ware is distinguished by the use of a glaze tinted green with copper oxide fired in oxidation. The glaze sometimes was used as an overall coating for vessels but more typically was applied in carefully calculated patches to contrast with areas of pictorial or geometric decoration painted with iron pigment under clear glaze. Oribe ware became a staple of the Mino kilns from circa 1600, with the startup of the first new type of multi-chambered climbing kiln to be built in Mino at Motoyashiki. This ewer may have been made at the Kamagane kiln, which operated circa 1610-1635.

Published References
  • Oriental Ceramics: The World's Great Collections. 12 vols., Tokyo. vol. 10, pl. 51.
  • Japan Ceramics Society. Oribe. Exh. cat. Tokyo, 5-17 May 1967. unnumbered.
  • Louise Allison Cort. Japanese Tea Culture: Art, History, and Practice. London and New York. fig. 3.15.
  • Dr. John Alexander Pope, Thomas Lawton, Harold P. Stern. The Freer Gallery of Art. 2 vols., Washington and Tokyo, 1971-1972. cat. 123, vol. 2: p. 183.
  • Louise Allison Cort. Seto and Mino Ceramics. Washington and Honolulu, 1992. cat. 37, p. 110.
Collection Area(s)
Japanese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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