Kenzan-style food bowl with design of pine trees

Bowl (futujawan), missing lid, ovoidal; bold foot. Gold lacquer repairs.
Clay: buff stoneware, fired in reduction.
Glaze: transparent.
Decoration: in cobalt and iron, with patch of white slip, under glaze.
Signature: Kenzan, written in iron on foot.

Maker(s)
Artist: Style of Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743) Kyoto workshop, Kenzan style
Historical period(s)
Edo period, mid 19th century
Medium
Stoneware with white slip, iron and cobalt pigments under transparent glaze
Style
Kyoto ware
Dimensions
H x Diam: 6.7 x 13.4 cm (2 5/8 x 5 1/4 in)
Geography
Japan, Kyoto prefecture, Kyoto
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Accession Number
F1899.36
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Bowl (futajawan)

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

To 1899
Bunkio Matsuki (1867-1940), Boston, to 1899 [1]

From 1899 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Bunkio Matsuki in 1899 [2]

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

Notes:

[1] See Original Pottery List, L. 428, 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)

Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919
Bunkio Matsuki (C.L. Freer source) 1867-1940

Description

Bowl (futujawan), missing lid, ovoidal; bold foot. Gold lacquer repairs.
Clay: buff stoneware, fired in reduction.
Glaze: transparent.
Decoration: in cobalt and iron, with patch of white slip, under glaze.
Signature: Kenzan, written in iron on foot.

Label

The earliest ceramics made by the Kyoto potter Ogata Kenzan are finely wrought works that echo the shapes and colors of contemporaneous luxury goods, including lacquer and albums of poetry illustrated with Japanese-style painting. Later in his career, Kenzan developed simplified versions of decoration that could be reproduced quickly and in quantity, responding to their immense popularity. As seen in the landscape with a pine grove on this bowl, the abbreviated “Kenzan style” of decoration became a staple of Kyoto ceramic workshops. The bowl originally had a matching lid and was one of a set of bowls used for serving steamed food.

Published References
  • Richard L. Wilson. The Potter's Brush: The Kenzan Style in Japanese Ceramics. Exh. cat. Washington. p. 152, fig. 68.
Collection Area(s)
Japanese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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