Tea-leaf storage jar

A pair of glazes applied to the stoneware of this late seventeenth-century Edo jar gives two unique and striking effects. A thick, mottled olive green ash glaze (called ameyu in Japan) produces purple splashes that flow randomly from the jar's shoulder on one side. An all-over coating of iron-slip glaze (called akadobe) creates a golden-dimpled appearance on another side of the tea-leaf storage jar, or chatsubo. In his object notes about the jar, which he purchased from Yamanaka and Company in 1899, Freer described the vessel as "Good. Not very fine."