Tea bowl with design of chrysanthemums

Tea bowl, bulbous ovoidal; heavy foot.
Clay: dense, gray-white.
Glaze: pinkish gray-white, crackled, dappled with gold; black on rim.
Decoration: embossed in thick white glaze.

Maker(s)
Artist: Nin'ami Dōhachi 仁阿弥道八 (1783-1855)
Historical period(s)
Edo period, 1805-1842
Medium
Stoneware with white slip and iron pigment under clear glaze, gold leaf over glaze
Style
Kyoto ware
Dimensions
H x Diam: 8.8 × 12.8 cm (3 7/16 × 5 1/16 in)
Geography
Japan, Kyoto prefecture, Kyoto, Gojozaka
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Accession Number
F1896.55
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Tea bowl

Keywords
chrysanthemum, Edo period (1615 - 1868), Japan, Kyoto ware, stoneware, tea
Provenance

To 1896
Rufus E. Moore, New York to 1896 [1]

From 1896 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Rufus E. Moore in 1896 [2]

From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

Notes:

[1] See Original Pottery List, L. 384, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

[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.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Rufus E. Moore (C.L. Freer source) 1840-1918
Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919

Description

Tea bowl, bulbous ovoidal; heavy foot.
Clay: dense, gray-white.
Glaze: pinkish gray-white, crackled, dappled with gold; black on rim.
Decoration: embossed in thick white glaze.

Marking(s)

Square oval seal, "Dohachi," inside footrim.

Label

Thick white-clay solution was used to model the relief decoration of chrysanthemum blossoms, a floral motif closely associated with autumn through winter. Perhaps this bowl was made for a New Year’s chanoyu gathering. Often, bowls newly made for chanoyu events to celebrate the New Year were decorated with fragile gold leaf, which wore off in the course of a single use.

Collection Area(s)
Japanese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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