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 Jar
(Japan, Kamakura period, 13th-14th century)
Tokoname ware, stoneware with ash glaze
Height: 15 1/2 in. (39.4 cm)
Diameter at shoulder: 18 3/4 in. (47.6 cm)
Purchased with funds
provided by the Museum Associates, the Frederick R. Weisman
Company, and the Far Eastern Art Council, M.80.77
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art
is fortunate to have one of the finest extant examples of
Tokoname ware from the Kamakura period (thirteenth-fourteenth
century). This jar is massive, its asymmetrical form imparting a
dynamic sense of balance. The exposed, unglazed body, rich in
iron, was fired to a deep chestnut red. Flying wood ash settling
on the surface has created splashes of blue, beige, and white,
which mingle in a delicious interplay.
A piece such as this Tokoname jar
is formed of thick coils of clay modeled into a powerful shape
of broad shoulders and narrow foot. This pot is unusual, being
broader at the shoulder than its overall height. The
straight-rising neck may indicate that it was used as a storage
or shipping jar. Pieces such as this were fired at high
temperatures in huge climbing kilns for up to fourteen days.
This piece was fired without glaze, but during the firing, wood
ash dropping on the jar's surface combined with silicon in the
clay body to produce what is called a "natural glaze,"
which flows down the sides of the piece in an unplanned and, in
this case, felicitous way. This "accident of the kiln"
later came to be appreciated by masters of the tea ceremony, who
esteemed its spontaneous and natural quality.
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