The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of September 28, 2023

Large Jar

1400s

Japan, Muromachi period

(1392–1573)

Stoneware with natural ash glaze (Shigaraki ware)

Overall: 43.8 x 38.1 cm (17 1/4 x 15 in.)

Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift 2020.191

Location

not on view

Description

The orange color of this jar comes from iron in the clay. Natural ash glaze settled on the vessel during firing. Originally intended for grain storage, rustic containers like this one were also prized by tea enthusiasts, who appreciated the uncalculated beauty of the glaze and the asymmetry of these humble objects. They used them to store tea leaves.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Box inscription (front): 「不明」壺

Inscription Translation

Box inscription (front): (illegible) Jar

Provenance
?–2006
(Yanagi Shigehiko, Kyoto, Japan, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph P. Keithley)
2006–2020
Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
2020–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Tsujimura Shirō. "壺中の天 信楽壺名品に見る" (Tsubonaka no ten Shigaraki tsubo meihin ni miru) [Heaven in a Jar, Looking at Masterworks of Shigaraki Jars]. 大壺小壺骨董を楽しむ 26別冊太陽 (Ōtsubo kotsubo, kottō wo tanoshimu 26. Besattsu Taiyō). [Large Jars, Small Jars. Enjoying Antiques, no. 26, The Sun, Supplement]. Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1999, 4–21. pp. 6–7
Yūraku. 特集 古信楽 M I H O M U S E U M 秋季特別展「信楽−壺の天」より(Tokushū ko-Shigaraki MIHO MUSEUM shūki tokubetsuten, “Shigaraki—Tsubonaka no ten” yori) [From the Miho Museum’s Autumn Special Exhibition, “Shigaraki—Heaven in a Jar”]. 遊楽 (Yūraku) [Yu-raku], no. 73 (July 1999): 8–19. p. 11, no. 4
Miho Museum. Shigaraki: tsubonaka no ten [信樂 : 壺中の天 = Ko-Shigaraki: jars from Shigaraki's medieval kilns]. Shiga-ken: Miho Museum, 1999. Reproduced: cat. no. 38, p. 45; Mentioned: cat. no. 38, pp. 184 (Japanese) and 238 (English)
Exhibition history

Ko-Shigaraki: jars from Shigaraki's medieval kilns [Shigaraki: tsubonaka no ten= 信樂 : 壺中の天]. Miho Museum, Koka, Shiga, Japan (September 1-December 15, 1999).

Rinpa (琳派) (Japanese gallery rotation) 235. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 23-October 3, 2021).

Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.191