Tea bowl with reserve design of fans
date: label: Date
content: mid-17th century
label: Period
content: Edo period
name: label: Artist
content: Nonomura Ninsei (active ca. 1646-77)
notes: label: Description
content: Tea bowl, bulbous ovoidal shape.
label: Description
content: Clay: coarse, light, buff-gray stoneware.
label: Description
content: Glaze: glossy black, orange skin texture.
label: Description
content: Decoration: two fan shapes reserved in clay color against black glaze and decorated with colored enamels.
label: Marks
content: Seal: Ninsei 仁清
label: Label
content: Mino potters invented the technique for producing a lustrous black glaze on tea bowls by using iron tongs to extract the bowls from the kiln as soon as the glaze melted, rather than leaving them to cool in the kiln, where they would have turned brown. Recent research has discovered that Ninsei used the same technique for his black-glazed bowls. Ninsei's bowl is thinner and more delicately shaped than the robust Black Seto bowls from Mino. Ninsei used fine-pointed tongs that left nearly invisible scars in the glaze. Moreover, his black glaze serves as a ground for two fan-shaped "windows" of white glaze that he decorated with floral motifs rendered in enamels.
label: Provenance
content: To 1898
label: Provenance
content: Yamanaka & Company, to 1898 [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1898 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Yamanaka & Company in 1898 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 1920
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] See Original Pottery List, L. 592, 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.
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Provenance
content: [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.
label: Collection
content: Freer Gallery of Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: Tea Ceramics after Koetsu (June 27, 2015 to January 3, 2016)
label: Exhibition History
content: Bold and Beautiful: Rinpa in Japanese Art (June 28, 2015 to January 3, 2016)
label: Exhibition History
content: Moonlight and Clouds: Silver and Gold in the Arts of Japan (November 11, 2008 to November 11, 2009)
label: Exhibition History
content: Tea Bowls in Bloom: Botanical Decoration on Tea Ceremony Ceramics (February 3 to July 15, 2007)
label: Exhibition History
content: Freer: A Taste for Japanese Art (July 1, 2006 to January 1, 2007)
label: Exhibition History
content: Rusticity Refined: Kyoto Ceramics by Ninsei (March 19 to October 23, 2005)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art in the Age of Koetsu (June 6, 1998 to February 15, 1999)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Fans (April 6, 1984 to October 18, 1984)
label: Exhibition History
content: Kyoto Ceramics (November 9, 1984 to April 25, 1985)
label: Exhibition History
content: Fans (May 18, 1980 to October 13, 1981)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Ceramics (April 11, 1978 to January 17, 1980)
label: Exhibition History
content: Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons in Japanese Art (September 14, 1977 to April 8, 1978)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art (October 2, 1975 to October 8, 1976)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art: Paintings and Pottery (July 1, 1966 to May 2, 1973)
label: Exhibition History
content: Centennial Exhibition, Galleries 3 and 4 (February 25, 1956 to January 1, 1963)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Yamanaka and Co. 山中商会 (1917-1965) (C.L. Freer source)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
place: label: Origin
content: Omuro kiln, Kyoto, Kyoto prefecture, Japan
topic: label: Topic
content: ceramic
label: Topic
content: Omuro ware
label: Topic
content: Edo period (1615 - 1868)
label: Topic
content: tea
label: Topic
content: fan
label: Topic
content: Japan
label: Topic
content: stoneware
label: Topic
content: Japanese Art
label: Topic
content: Charles Lang Freer collection
setName: label: Related Online Resources
content: Google Arts & Culture
label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Charles Lang Freer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: F1898.466
objectType: label: Type
content: Vessel
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Stoneware with black glaze, enamels over white glaze
label: Dimensions
content: H x Diam: 8.8 x 13.8 cm (3 7/16 x 5 7/16 in)