Page 55 - Christie's Mineo Hata Collection Sept. 21, 2023

A MAGNIFICENT AND

UNUSUALLY LARGE LONGQUAN
CELADON KINUTA VASE

ROSEMARY SCOTT, INDEPENDENT SCHOLAR

hile Longquan vases of this form and with such an 1986 in the tomb of the Princess of Chen of the Liao dynasty, the
exquisite glaze have been highly prized from the time terminus ante quem for which is 1018 (illustrated ibid. cat. no. 25,
W of their manufacture to the present day, the current fig. 2). It may also be significant that, according to the Southern
vase would have been especially revered for its exceptional size and Song scholar Hong Mai (1123-1202) in his Yijianzhi (Record of the
the shape and accomplished rendering of its handles. Kinuta vases Listener), the Northern Song Emperor Huizong (r. 1100-1126) had a
were made with two types of handles – the more usual being in a collection of imported glass.
relatively simple bird form (generally identified as a phoenix) and the
rarer being in the form of a well-modelled dragon-fish. The current The esteem in which Longquan kinuta vases are held can be seen in
vase has especially fine dragon-fish handles. the approbation they have received in modern Japan. A kinuta vase,
with phoenix handles (height of 30.8 cm.), known as Bansei (Ten
The Japanese name kinuta, refers to a mallet, as these are regarded Thousand Cries), in the Kuboso Memorial Museum of Arts, Izumi,
as mallet-shaped vases, and were imported into Japan in the Osaka, has been designated as a Japanese National Treasure (see
Southern Song (1127-1279) and Yuan (1279-1368) dynasties. Like Special Exhibition – Chinese Ceramics, Tokyo National Museum,
the current example, they were often characterised by especially fine Tokyo, 1994, p. 125, no. 182). Another of phoenix-handled Longquan
Longquan glazes, and so the term kinuta is also sometimes applied mallet vase (height of 29.2 cm.), from the Ataka Collection, now
as a complimentary term in relation to a glaze. In the Northern in the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka (see Gakuji Hasebe
Song dynasty (AD 960-1127) the mallet form with wide flattened (ed.), Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol 12, Sung, Tokyo, 1977, no. 209), has
mouth, sharp shoulder junctions and almost straight sides, was been designated an Important Cultural Property by the Japanese
made in two of the ceramic wares associated with the imperial authorities (Fig. 1), as has an example, height 26.2 cm., known
court. A small number of Ding wares were made in this form, and as Sensei (A Thousand Cries) in the Yomei Bunko, Kyoto (see
an example with reduced mouth is in the collection of the Percival Museum of Oriental Ceramics Osaka, Song Ceramics, 1999,
David Foundation (illustrated by Stacey Pierson in Song Ceramics - p. 104, no. 67). Longquan twin-handled kinuta vases can be found
Objects of Admiration, Percival David Foundation, London, 2003, p. in several other collections in Japan, such as the Tokyo National
20-1, no. 1). Perhaps more significantly, Ru wares made specifically Museum (see Illustrated Catalogues of Tokyo National Museum –
for the Northern Song court, have been found in this form. A mallet- Chinese Ceramics, Tokyo, p. 91, no. 372), the Nezu Museum, and the
shaped Ru ware vase with wide flattened mouth was excavated in Hatakeyama Memorial Museum (see S. Hayashiya and H. Trubner,
1987 at the kiln site of Qingliangsi, Baofengxian, Henan province Chinese Ceramics from Japanese Collections, Asia House Gallery,
(Grand View: Special Exhibition of Ju Ware from the Northern Sung New York, 1977, no. 22). An example with dragon-fish handles from
Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2006, pp. 114-5, no. 23), the Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya, is illustrated in the exhibition
while the National Palace Museum, Taipei has two similar Ru ware catalogue Heavenly Blue: Southern Song Celadon, Nezu Museum,
vases with damaged mouths (ibid., pp. 116-19, nos. 24 and 25). 2010, no. 23 (Fig. 2), while two further examples from the collection
The shape, despite resembling a paper mallet, may in fact have of the Seikado Bunko Art Museum, Tokyo, were included in the
been introduced to China as a glass vessel from the Islamic west, same exhibition (nos. 24 and 25).
possible Iran. Fragments of glass vessels of this shape were found
in 1997 amongst the cargo of the Intan wrecked ship excavated off The majority of surviving Longquan vases of kinuta form are
the Indonesian coast. This ship is believed to date to the Northern between 23 and 30 cm. high – such as the phoenix-handled vase in
Song period. An Islamic glass vessel of this form was also found in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, which is 25

靈心慧目ě秦峰⁸中४藝術集珍 53