Vase

Vase

Awata district

This Meiji era vase is attributed to the Japanese artist Kinkozan Sobei VI. The artist's mark is impressed on the base of the vessel. Ceramics coming out of the Kinkozan workshop are characterized by a style of overglaze enamel decoration, and on this vase, that method produces a blue lava-like effect flowing from the mouth of the flattened rim. The vessel's body is a dimpled copper brown. Freer bought this namban style vase from Yamanaka and Company in 1901.

Kinkozan Sobei VI (1824 - 1884)

circa 1870-1880

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Yamanaka and Co.

Stoneware with iron and cobalt glazes

Kinkozan ware

HxW: 19.0 x 10.9 cm

F1901.146a-b

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2

124

South

Meiji era

Kyoto

Japan

United States

New York

New York

Inkstone screen

Inkstone screen (kenbyo)

This desk screen is one of several ceramics that Freer acquired and believed to be by the renowned Kyoto ceramist Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743), but since have been reattributed to nineteenth-century imitators. In his 1885 book <i>Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings</i>, Edward Sylvester Morse commented on the format of works like this: "In the old-fashioned genkan, or hall-way, there stands a solid screen of wood with heavy frame, supported by two transverse feet. This screen is called <i>tsui-tate</i>, and is an article of furniture belonging to the hall....Diminutive models of the tsui-tate are made in pottery or porcelain, and these are for the purpose of standing in front of the ink-stone to prevent the mats from being spattered when the ink is rubbed." In the Peacock Room in Detroit, this desk screen was placed among ceramic vessels with similar landscape decorations.

Imitation of Ogata Kenzan

late 19th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

R. E. Moore

Buff clay; iron pigment, enamels under transparent lead glaze.

HxWxD: 27.6 x 38.2 x 2.6 cm

F1897.20

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2

74

East

Meiji era

Kyoto

Japan

United States

New York

New York

Kenzan-style water jar with crane and fishnet design

Tea ceremony water jar (tomobuta mizusashi)

Dealer Matsuki Bunkyo sold this water jar to Freer in 1898, describing it as a work by the renowned Kyoto ceramist Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743) or one of his earliest followers. Edward Sylvester Morse, a noted authority on Japanese art, bluntly informed Freer, "Don't believe Kenzan ever made that in the world"; the vessel is now attributed to a nineteenth-century imitator. In the Peacock Room in Detroit, Freer displayed this jar, with its design of cranes and fishnets, among other vessels featuring figurative surface decorations.

Imitation of Ogata Kenzan

late 19th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Matsuki Bunkyo

Buff clay; white slip, iron pigment under transparent and ochre-colored lead glazes

Raku ware, unknown workshop

HxWxD: 18.8 x 21.4 x 21.4 cm

F1898.52a-b

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2

69

East

Meiji era

Kyoto

Japan

United States

Boston

Massachusetts

Tea ceremony narrow water jar, with black lacquer lid

Tea ceremony water jar (hosomizusashi)

Imitation of Ogata Kenzan

late 19th century

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Siegfried Bing

Clay; black and transparent lead glazes; lacquered wooden lid

Raku ware, unknown workshop

HxWxD: 23.3 x 13.3 x 13.3 cm

F1901.61a-b

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2

8

North

Meiji era

Kyoto

Japan

France

Paris