Six-sided ember pot with design of Tama River of Musashino
Object Details
- Description
- Container for live coals; hexagonal bowl on high cylindrical foot.
- Clay: earthenware, light gray.
- Glaze: transparent lead glaze, minutely crackled in brown; iridescent. Lower interior unglazed, coated with iron wash.
- Decoration: In iron pigment and underglaze enamels, autumn landscape, bush clover and chrysanthemums, courtiers and peasants on outside; multi-colored clouds on band inside rim.
- Signatures
- Kenzan, written in iron pigment underglaze on base.
- Label
- The unglazed interior and the shape suggest a pot to hold live embers for lighting pipes. The faceting resembles the folds of a screen. Six Tama (Jeweled) rivers are employed poetically in Japan. This one, identifiable by the cloth-processing vignettes, is the Tama River in Musashino, present-day Tokyo.
- Provenance
- To 1902
- Samuel Colman (1832-1920), New York, NY, and Newport, RI, to 1902 [1]
- From 1902 to 1919
- Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased at the sale of the Samuel Colman Collection, American Art Association, New York, March 19-22, 1902 [2]
- From 1920
- Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
- Notes:
- [1] See Original Pottery List, L. 1150, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Samuel Colman was collecting Asian objects by at least 1880 (see Curatorial Remark 10, Louise Cort, April 20, 2007, in the object record).
- [2] See note 1.
- [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.
- Collection
- Freer Gallery of Art Collection
- Exhibition History
- The Potter's Brush: The Kenzan Style in Japanese Ceramics (December 9, 2001 to October 27, 2002)
- Previous custodian or owner
- Samuel Colman (1832-1920)
- American Art Association (established 1883) (C.L. Freer source)
- Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
- Credit Line
- Gift of Charles Lang Freer
- Data Source
- Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
- Date
- early 19th century
- Period
- Edo period
- Accession Number
- F1902.82
- Artist
- Miyazaki Tominosuke (fl. 1770s-1830s)
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- Vessel
- Medium
- Red clay with white slip, iron pigment, and enamels under transparent lead glaze
- Dimensions
- H x Diam: 8.7 × 13.8 cm (3 7/16 × 5 7/16 in)
- Origin
- Edo, Japan
- Related Online Resources
- Google Cultural Institute
- See more items in
- Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
- Topic
- iridescence
- ceramic
- landscape
- autumn
- Edo period (1615 - 1868)
- water
- river
- Japan
- Japanese Art
- Charles Lang Freer collection
- Record ID
- fsg_F1902.82
