Incense burner with design of mountain retreat
date: label: Date
content: 1712-ca. 1731
label: Period
content: Edo period
name: label: Artist
content: Ogata Kenzan 尾形 乾山 (1663-1743) , Chojiyamachi workshop
notes: label: Description
content: Small, cylindrical; low, retired foot. Gold lacquer repair.
label: Description
content: Clay: hard, dense, grayish. Stoneware.
label: Description
content: Glaze: transparent, appearing lustrous cream-white; overflow of pinkish-fawn.
label: Description
content: Decoration: in gosu (agrolite, an impure cobalt oxide) under glaze. Pavilion and landscape.
label: Signatures
content: Kenzan
label: Inscriptions
content: Inscription.
label: Label
content: The overall composition suggests a handscroll wrapped around the vessel. The poem, appropriate to the high-minded flavor of the mountain retreat, may be paraphrased thus:
label: Label
content: Indifferent to expense, they built a lofty golden terrace
label: Label
content: Settled here in seclusion, my mind has turned to ashes.
label: Label
content: The poem alludes to a well-known series of linked verses called Jingqiu langu (Reflections on Jingqiu) composed by Chen Ziang (661-702).
label: Label
content: The absence of glaze on the interior shows the vessel was made not as a tea bowl but as an incense burner. It has been suggested that the use of the character "ash," connoting "extinction," at the end of the poem relates to the use of this piece as an incense burner (the incense is laid over a bed of ash). The harmonization of visual and literary imagery with actual deployment is a fitting example of the first Kenzan's total approach.
label: Provenance
content: To 1898
label: Provenance
content: Bunkio Matsuki (1867-1940), Boston, to 1898 [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1898 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Bunkio Matsuki 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. 438, 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: Rinpa: Creativity Across Time and Space (October 1, 2022 to April 2, 2023)
label: Exhibition History
content: Bold and Beautiful: Rinpa in Japanese Art (June 28, 2015 to January 3, 2016)
label: Exhibition History
content: Tea Ceramics after Koetsu (June 27, 2015 to January 3, 2016)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Arts in the Edo Period: 1615-1868, part 2 (March 8 to October 19, 2008)
label: Exhibition History
content: Landscapes in Japanese Art (February 2 to July 15, 2007)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Arts in the Edo Period: 1615-1868, part 1 (August 18, 2007 to February 24, 2008)
label: Exhibition History
content: The Potter's Brush: The Kenzan Style in Japanese Ceramics (December 9, 2001 to October 27, 2002)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Art (April 13 to November 21, 1995)
label: Exhibition History
content: Ceramics by Ogata Kenzan (October 9, 1980 to October 30, 1980)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Ceramics (April 11, 1978 to January 17, 1980)
label: Exhibition History
content: Special Exhibition—Japanese Art (October 16, 1963 to August 18, 1967)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Bunkio Matsuki 松木文恭 (1867-1940) (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: landscape
label: Topic
content: Edo period (1615 - 1868)
label: Topic
content: mountain
label: Topic
content: incense
label: Topic
content: Japan
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: F1898.440
objectType: label: Type
content: Vessel
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Stoneware with cobalt pigment under clear glaze; gold lacquer repairs
label: Dimensions
content: H x Diam: 6.1 × 8 cm (2 3/8 × 3 1/8 in)