Kyoto ware jar with design of phoenixes and paulownia crests
date: label: Date
content: late 17th century
label: Period
content: Edo period
notes: label: Description
content: Jar. Gold lacquer repairs. Black lacquer cover.
label: Description
content: Clay: hard, sonorous, beige. Stained where exposed at base.
label: Description
content: Glaze: translucent fish-roe crackle.
label: Description
content: Decoration: in green, blue and red enamels, and gold, over glaze. Gold lost in areas. Pair of phoenixes, five paulownia crests, kashiwa leaves and grasses, and vinescroll motif.
label: Description
content: Seal and inscription.
label: Marks
content: Seal: kiyo [JPN].
label: Marks
content: Seal: kiyo [JPN].
label: Inscriptions
content: The inscription on the base, written in ink, shows the jar's original use:
label: Inscriptions
content: tsubu to [JPN] jar capacity (literally to, equal to 4.8 gallons)
label: Inscriptions
content: tsuke me [JPN] quantity of me (=.1325 oz.)
label: Inscriptions
content: ni hyaku nanaju ho [JPN] 275 [me] (=36.4 oz or 2.2 lbs.)
label: Inscriptions
content: (The three-character inscription in the center of the base probably gives the owner's name)
label: Inscriptions
content: The inscription indicates that the jar was found to hold 275 me of tea leaves. (Compare a similar inscription on a Chinese tea jar, F1899.47.) The tea involved could well have been sencha, the Ming Chinese style of processed tea that became popular in the 18th century in Japan
label: Label
content: The term "Old Kiyomizu ware" is sometimes given only to pottery decorated in the distinctive color scheme of green, blue, and gold enamels, sometimes to all Kyoto pottery that predates the beginning of porcelain production in the late 18th century. The decoration on this jar also incorporates red enamel. The jar may once have had a double lid of the sort used to give a tight seal for tea-leaf storage. Later it was fitted with a lacquered wooden lid for use as a freshwater jar in the tea ceremony. An inscription on the base records the jar's price.
label: Provenance
content: To 1899
label: Provenance
content: Yamanaka & Company, New York, NY, to 1899 [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1899 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Yamanaka & Company in 1899 [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. 87, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
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: Kyoto Ceramics (November 9, 1984 to April 25, 1985)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Japanese Art (October 3, 1947 to February 25, 1956)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Japanese Art, 1946 (May 3, 1946 to October 6, 1947)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese and Korean Pottery, and Korean Bronze (May 2, 1923 to March 22, 1943)
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: Kyoto, Kyoto prefecture, Japan
topic: label: Topic
content: lacquer
label: Topic
content: ceramic
label: Topic
content: bird
label: Topic
content: plant
label: Topic
content: phoenix
label: Topic
content: Kyoto ware
label: Topic
content: Old Kiyomizu ware
label: Topic
content: Edo period (1615 - 1868)
label: Topic
content: tea
label: Topic
content: Japan
label: Topic
content: stoneware
label: Topic
content: Japanese Art
label: Topic
content: lacquer repair
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: F1899.61a-b
objectType: label: Type
content: Vessel
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Stoneware with enamels over clear glaze; gold lacquer repair; lacquered wooden lid
label: Dimensions
content: H x Diam: 21.9 × 18.1 cm (8 5/8 × 7 1/8 in)
label: Style
content: Kyoto ware