{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O70480"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O70480/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AJ7156/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AJ7156/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AJ7156","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AP8011","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BC5468","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2015HN2227","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2020ML8975","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O70480/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O70480","accessionNumber":"191-1877","objectType":"Fresh-water jar","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"With its exploitation of chance effects, rough textures, controlled irregularity and emphatic celebration of the potter's touch, this jar is characteristic of a strand in Japanese ceramics particularly associated with the tea ceremony, for use in which it was intended.\r\n\r\nThe jar was acquired, like many of the V&A's best tea ceramics, from the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876. The previous year the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) had paid £1,000 to the Exposition's Japanese commissioners to make a selection of ceramics 'to give fully the history of the art.' At nine shillings (45p), this jar was relatively inexpensive, reflecting the low value attached to historical tea wares at a time of extreme adulation of the West. The importance of such pieces in the Japanese ceramic canon has long since been recognised, however, and this jar now ranks as one of the cornerstones of the V&A's Japanese collection.\r\n\r\nThe jar was made in Bizen, one of the first areas to make purpose-made tea wares in the late sixteenth century. Prior to that, ceramics from China, Korea and South-East Asia had been prized, as had some native Japanese ceramics. The latter included earlier Bizen and Shigaraki wares originally made for alternative purposes but adopted by tea afici0nados for tea ceremony use. This jar would have been used to contain cold water, which was used to top up water heated in a cast-iron kettle. Powerfully sculpted, it embodies both the taste for the simple and restrained characteristic of the 'wabi' tea aesthetic championed by the tea master Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591) and the taste for the bold and exuberant characteristic of Furuta Oribe (1544-1615), a follower of Rikyu who succeeded his teacher as leading tea master of the day and was particularly active in commissioning tea wares from different Japanese kilns.","physicalDescription":"Wide-mouthed jar with upright sides and two lug handles, reddish brown clay with patches of ochre green natural ash glaze, scorch marks and sculpted surface detailing; impressed seal on inside bottom and incised mark on base","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"stoneware","id":"x30197"}],"techniques":[{"text":"unglazed","id":"x44601"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Stoneware, thrown and partially sculpted, with natural ash glaze","categories":[{"text":"Ceramics","id":"THES48982"},{"text":"Stoneware","id":"THES48890"},{"text":"Tea, Coffee & Chocolate wares","id":"THES48886"},{"text":"Containers","id":"THES48972"}],"styles":[{"text":"Momoyama","id":"AAT18563"},{"text":"Edo","id":"AAT106643"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"EAS","id":"THES48596"},"images":["2006AJ7156","2006AP8011","2006BC5468","2015HN2227","2020ML8975"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"145","id":"THES49865"},"free":"","case":"48","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"006","id":"THES364827"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Jar","id":""}],[{"text":"Lid","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Bizen","id":"x36583"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1590-1630","earliest":"1590-01-01","latest":"1630-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"20.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"26.0","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"20.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":" ","type":"","note":""},{"content":" ","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""}],"objectHistory":"Purchased from the Japanese Commissioners for the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876, accessioned in 1877. This acquisition information reflects that found in the Asia Department registers, as part of a 2022 provenance research project.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Fresh-water jar with lug handles, Bizen ware, Japan, 1590-1630","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Baker, Malcolm, and Brenda Richardson (eds.), <i>A Grand Design: The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum</i>, London: V&A Publications, 1999.","id":"AUTH348910"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Liefkes, Reino and Hilary Young (eds.) <i>Masterpieces of World Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum</i>. London: V&A Publishing, 2008","id":"AUTH354348"},"details":"pp. 74-75","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Augustus Wollaston Franks and M. Shioda, <i>Japanese Pottery</i>. [London]: Chapman & Hall Ltd., 1880. South Kensington Museum Art Handbooks; 18.","id":"AUTH399030"},"details":"Catalogue number 32","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[{"text":"Philadelphia International Exhibition, 1876 (1876)","id":"V15"}],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Jar for tea ceremony\r\nJapan, Bizen kilns\r\n1590–1630\r\n\r\nThis jar contained the cold water used in the tea ceremony. The ceremony is associated with a taste for the simple and the restrained (wabi), which is matched by the jar’s roughness and irregularity. The glaze deliberately uses a chance effect – the result of\r\nwood ash settling on the jar during firing. The jar is an early example of purpose-made tea ware. Previously, ceramics made for other purposes had been used.\r\n\r\nStoneware, with natural ash glaze, firing marks and incised decoration\r\n\r\nMuseum no. 191-1877","date":{"text":"September 2009","earliest":"2009-09-01","latest":"2009-09-30"}},{"text":"Fresh-water jar with lug handles\r\nBizen kilns\r\nStoneware with natural ash glaze\r\n1590-1630\r\nV&A 191-1877\r\n","date":{"text":"December 2014","earliest":"2014-12-01","latest":"2014-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["191:1-1877","191:2-1877"],"accessionNumberNum":"191","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1877,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Jar","Lid"],"assets":["2019LP9341","2019LT6699","2019LU9676","2019LT9877"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-12","recordCreationDate":"2002-11-20","availableToBook":false}}