Mino ware Oribe style square serving dish with bail handle

Buff clay, partially tinted with iron pigment, shaped on cloth-lined mold. Four loop feet on base. Under clear glaze only, decoration of bleaching cloth and scattered plum blossoms on inside, stripes and wavelike scroll on outside, painted in iron pigment and white slip. Combed undulating line on bail handle. Clear glaze and copper-tinted green ash glaze, applied separately; most of base unglazed.

Historical period(s)
Momoyama period, 1607-1615
Medium
White pottery with underglaze iron decoration, clear and copper-tinted glazes
Style
Mino ware, Oribe type
Dimensions
H x W x D: 15.9 x 21 x 21 cm (6 1/4 x 8 1/4 x 8 1/4 in)
Geography
Japan, Gifu prefecture, Toki city, Kujiri village, Motoyashiki kiln
Credit Line
Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1967.21
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Serving dish (tebachi)

Keywords
flower, Japan, Mino ware, Oribe type, Momoyama period (1573 - 1615)
Provenance

To 1967
S. Yabumoto Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan. [1]

From 1967
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from S. Yabumoto Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan. [2]

Notes:

[1] Curatorial Remark 1 in the object record.

[2] See note 1.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

S. Yabumoto Co., Ltd.

Description

Buff clay, partially tinted with iron pigment, shaped on cloth-lined mold. Four loop feet on base. Under clear glaze only, decoration of bleaching cloth and scattered plum blossoms on inside, stripes and wavelike scroll on outside, painted in iron pigment and white slip. Combed undulating line on bail handle. Clear glaze and copper-tinted green ash glaze, applied separately; most of base unglazed.

Label

Green and yellow glazed pottery from southern China may have inspired Mino potters to experiment with these bright colors.  The Yellow Seto glaze, developed in the late sixteenth century, featured splashes of iron and copper on a grainy yellow glaze.  It was used on thin, wheel-thrown tableware with incised decoration.  In the seventeenth century, potters at the Motoyashiki kiln developed the copper-tinted green glaze called Oribe and used patches of it to contrast with areas of painted iron decoration under clear glaze.  The aggressive Oribe style was short-lived.  On the latest examples, like this pedestal-footed serving bowl, the copper has diminished to a mere trickle.

Published References
  • Zaigai Nihon no Shiho [Japanese Art: Selections from Western Collections]. 10 vols., Tokyo, 1979 - 1980. vol. 9: pl. 29.
  • Arakawa Hirokazu. Traditions in Japanese Design., 1st ed. Tokyo and Palo Alto. vol. 1: p. 64.
  • Oriental Ceramics: The World's Great Collections. 12 vols., Tokyo. vol. 10, pl. 50.
  • Louise Allison Cort. A Chinese Green Jar in Japan: Source of a New Color Aesthetic in the Momoyama Period. no. 30, 2009. fig. 2.
  • Dr. John Alexander Pope, Thomas Lawton, Harold P. Stern. The Freer Gallery of Art. 2 vols., Washington and Tokyo, 1971-1972. cat. 122, vol. 2: p. 182.
  • Louise Allison Cort. Seto and Mino Ceramics. Washington and Honolulu, 1992. cat. 35, p. 29.
  • Louise Allison Cort, Bert Winther-Tamaki, Bruce Altshuler, Niimi Ryu. Isamu Noguchi and Modern Japanese Ceramics: A Close Embrace of the Earth. Washington and Berkeley. p. 110, fig. 3.7.
Collection Area(s)
Japanese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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