Page 324 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

By the beginning of the sixteenth century, opposite are horizontal and without a sin- conjunction with irregular shapes and
a more efficient and advanced type of kiln gle focal point, while the clover and its op- sometimes graphic designs. Here, one side
began to be used in Mino and Seto, lead- posite are each set on a central axis from of the outer wall and the bottom of the in-
ing eventually to the creation of new which the design bifurcates. terior of the bowl are covered with decid-
wares at the Mino kilns, including Shino The irregularly shaped bowl from the edly abstract images traditionally
and Nezumi Shino. At the beginning of Tokyo National Museum (cat. 244) is an ex- interpreted as cranes and reeds, carved
the seventeenth century, the multi- ample of Nezumi Shino, a type of Mino through the outer coat of black glaze and
chambered noborigama (climbing kiln) was ware covered with iron-rich slip that fires filled in with white slip.
introduced from Karatsu to the Mino area, gray, the color of a mouse (nezumi). Iron The covered dish in the shape of a fan
first to Motoyashiki, enabling the artistic slip was applied with a ladle to parts of the from the Tokyo National Museum (cat.
breakthroughs that culminated with vessel, creating soft-edged borders with 247) is a product of the Mino noborigama
copper-glazed Green Oribe wares. At the sections left uncovered. The artist kilns, which produced Oribe ceramics
these noborigama, copies of the wares of etched hard-edged designs through the characterized by an iridescent green cop-
other Japanese kilns such as Iga, Shigaraki, gray slip with a sharp tool, and then ap- per glaze and underglaze iron drawing.
and Karatsu were also made. Utilitarian plied feldspathic glaze to the whole vessel. The design of this vessel is a blend of natu-
objects were produced even at those kilns The areas not covered with the iron slip, ral and geometric motifs. Triangular inden-
that fired the finest tablewares and tea such as the mass at the center of this dish tations inside the vessel at the base of the
utensils, and they assumed greater impor- and two parallel oblong shapes on the rim, fan and incised lines in the lid collect
tance as the demand for Mino tea-related fired white. The wagtail etched atop the glaze, creating color variations within the
wares decreased. central white form transforms it by associ- large mass of green.
A coat of feldspathic white glaze, typi- ation into a rock, while the iron slip fingers The Oribe potters often employed
cal of Shino ceramics, envelops most of at the base of the rock become waves, with molds to make complicated shapes. They
the mizusashi (fresh water container) from the addition of scraped lines beneath the experimented with a wide range of vessel
the Nezu Institute of Fine Arts (cat. 242). rock. Five-leafed kumazasa, a type of bam- forms, including sets of small shallow or
This glaze was perfected in the 15805, the boo, are incised through the slip on either tall dishes, known as mukdzuke, and large
result of earlier experiments involving ash side of the rock and painted on the rock dishes with stepped sides and bowlike han-
glazes with a high feldspathic content. A with iron slip. In contrast to the decora- dles. This dish was designed to contain
simple drawing in iron oxide is visible be- tion on the face of the dish, the exterior food, although the cover does not fit
neath the glaze; it depicts a pair of arching has been treated in an energetic, non- snugly enough to retain heat effectively.
reeds on one face of the vessel and a range representational manner. Apart from its utilitarian function, and
of three low mountains and pine trees on Similar decorative techniques have perhaps more important, the cover was re-
the other. The stolid shape of the mizu- been employed in the shallow Nezumi garded as another surface for decoration
sashi conveys a great sense of weight. The Shino bowl from the Suntory Museum of and as a dramatic device, concealing not
form is enlivened by pronounced bulges at Art (cat. 245). Most of the wide interior of only the edible contents of the dish but its
the top and bottom and irregular contu- the bowl has been masked with iron slip, interior decoration as well. AMW
sions, willful marks of the potter's artistic leaving uncovered only part of the rim and
personality that foreshadow later and even interior. The plate is dominated by a great 248 Large dish
more dramatic effects. The treatment of willow, its trunk extended across the white Karatsu ware
the rim was likened by connoisseurs to the boulderlike mass with a drawn arched line diam.43.Q(i7 / 4)
1
notch of an arrow (yahazu) giving rise to of iron slip; its branches fill the dish inte-
the name by which this type of mizusashi rior. Three birds are each formed of the Momoyama period,
was known. Similar yahazu-sty\e mizusashi same three etched marks. Non-represen- late loth-early ryth century
were also made at other Japanese kilns, in- tational decoration is also prominent. Umezawa Kinenkan, Tokyo
cluding Karatsu, Bizen. and Shigaraki, re- Oribe-style Mino ware was fired at a Important Cultural Property
flecting a confluence of tea-ware taste. small number of the Mino kilns. The
The Shino bowl from the Suntory name of the ware refers to the great Mo-
Museum of Art (cat. 243) was made for moyama period tea master, Furuta Oribe 249 Jar
kaiseki ryôri, the meal associated with the (1544-1615), born in Mino and awarded a Karatsu ware
tea ceremony. Inimitable and irregular in domain near Kyoto by Toyotomi Hide- h. 15.8 (6 V 4)
shape, this heavily potted dish rests on yoshi (1537-1598). Oribe's exact relation- Momoyama period,
three legs. It is decorated with underglaze ship to the Mino kilns is unclear, though late loth-early i7th century
iron drawing and covered with a thick coat the style that bears his name is thought to
of white feldspathic glaze. In the central reflect his advanced ideas regarding aes- Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo
section, interwoven grasses, a common thetics. Perhaps no shape is more repre- Karatsu ware is the glazed high-fired pot-
Shino motif, sprout from one of the four sentative of the tea wares Oribe is said to tery of Hizen Province, a large area in
trimmed corners. Each of the four sec- have favored than that of the kutsugata, or northern Kyushu that falls within present-
tions on the rim holds a discrete design. shoe-shaped, teabowl, here represented by day Saga and Nagasaki prefectures. As at
Two of the adjoining sections are filled one from the Umezawa Kinenkan in the other locations in western Japan, a great
with recognizable motifs depicted in an Black Oribe mode (cat. 246). Its exagger- flourish of ceramic activity occurred in Hi-
abbreviated but naturalistic manner: one ated warp was added after the basic form zen following the Korean expeditions of
with airborne plovers and a net hung to had been thrown on the wheel. The lac- 1592 and 1597, * unsuccessful attempts
ne
dry, the other a simple drawing of bush querlike black glaze was a technical inno- of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) to sub-
clover. The other two sections are filled vation made earlier at the Mino kilns at jugate the Asian mainland. Many of the
with abstract geometric designs, the ori- Amagane, the result of removing an iron- military leaders in these invasions were
gins of which may possibly lie in imported glazed vessel from the kiln while it was still daimyo and prominent warriors of Kyushu
European art forms. The design in each hot and rapidly cooling it. At the earlier domains, including Matsuura Shigenobu
section is formally related to the one oppo- kilns, the glaze was applied to simple cylin- (1549-1614), Nabeshima Naoshige (1538-
site. Both the net and bird motif and its drical teabowls, while in the Oribe style it
was just one decorative element, used in

311