Tea-ceremony water jar

The simple bucket shape of this early seventeenth-century Japanese lidded jar disguises the intricate workmanship which produced it. In Japanese, the shape is known as hitoe-guchi, literally, "plain rim," and it began to be made in the sixteenth century, probably from a Chinese bronze prototype. The shape is so versatile that it became a classic pottery model that continued to be produced at Seto kilns throughout the Edo period. Although this pottery was thrown on a wheel, the throwing marks are unobtrusive, a mark of quality craftsmanship. The finishing technique involved hand-trimming or carving, after which several glazes were applied to produce a richly mottled surface, as was customary of Chinese ceramics. The thin lacquered wooden lid overhangs the rim slightly and accentuates the vessel's elegant shape. When Edward Sylvester Morse, the nineteenth-century Boston scholar and collector, first encountered this water jar in Freer's collection, he is said to have exclaimed, "My God, that's great. Wonderful things—ripping—a corker."