Tea bowl with design of mountain retreat
date: label: Date
content: mid 18th century
label: Period
content: Edo period
name: label: Artist
content: Ogata Ihachi (Kyoto Kenzan II) (active 1720-1760)
notes: label: Description
content: Gold lacquer repair.
label: Description
content: Clay: hard, fine. Stoneware.
label: Description
content: Glaze: cream, finely crackled.
label: Description
content: Decoration: white slip with iron and impure cobalt under glaze. Pavilion and landscape.
label: Signatures
content: "Kenzan Sei Sho," (inscribed by Kenzan) with "ji"-style cipher.
label: Label
content: The poem reads: "In tranquility, the universe is great." The conflation of a vast entity with a small bounded space is a common theme in Zen poetry, and ultimately derives from the early and influential Daoist test Zhuangzi (ca. 3d century B.C.E.) A ceramic prototype with this expression can be seen in kosometsuke, the late-Ming cobalt-decorated porcelains imported into Japan in the early-Edo period. Here, since half the poem is on the outside and half on the inside, the full measure of the verse--and its relation to the enclosed space of the vessel, which "becomes" the universe in metaphor--is revealed either through drinking or otherwise handling the bowl. Serious poetic appreciation thus merges into mischievous "parlor" humor, with parallels in painted sake cups that reveal comical faces or other figures as they are tipped.
label: Provenance
content: To 1896
label: Provenance
content: Yamanaka & Company, New York to 1896 [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1896 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Yamanaka & Company in 1896 [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. 481, 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: 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: The Potter's Brush: The Kenzan Style in Japanese Ceramics (December 9, 2001 to October 27, 2002)
label: Exhibition History
content: Japanese Ceramics (April 11, 1978 to January 17, 1980)
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: landscape
label: Topic
content: Edo period (1615 - 1868)
label: Topic
content: mountain
label: Topic
content: tea
label: Topic
content: pavilion
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: F1896.99
objectType: label: Type
content: Vessel
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Stoneware with white slip, iron and cobalt pigments under clear glaze; gold lacquer repairs
label: Dimensions
content: H x Diam: 7.3 × 10 cm (2 7/8 × 3 15/16 in)