Page 71 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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Nonomura Ninsei (d. 1695)
Tea leaf jar with young pines, camellia,
and mountain design

c. 1658
Stoneware with polychrome
overglaze enamels
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Height 26.3 (10 /s)
Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo
Important Cultural Property

• The form of this thin-walled jar
70
for storing tea leaves (chatsubo) is an
enlarged version of a lacquer tea
caddy (chaire). It is one of the smaller
examples that Ninsei produced and
perhaps his most refined. The shoul-
ders are square with four ears placed
on top for use in securing the lid.
i
This vessel demonstrates Ninsei's
strength not only with form but with
overglaze enamel design. He devel-
1 The tea bowl was made on the potter's oped a special type of "Ninsei black"
Nonomura Ninsei (d. 1695) wheel and finished by hand. Some- enamel, over and around which he
Tea bowl with crescent moon and what unusually for Ninsei, the rim, applied other brightly colored enam-
waves design which is quite thin, has a purposeful els in a painterly fashion. In this night
dent directly over the moon, possibly
c. 1656 scene the hills and ground have been
Stoneware with polychrome to make it easier to drink from the sprinkled with gold leaf, another
overglaze enamels bowl. The moon was painted in technique pioneered by Ninsei, though
underglaze iron oxide, the waves in
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Diameter 12.5 (4 /s) it was similar to that used both on the
Tokyo National Museum overglaze blue and green enamel. The popular golden screens and on makie
piece was then partly covered in a lacquer objects. Young pines with
thin clear glaze, leaving the footring
• Nonomura Ninsei was one of the silver pinecones and clusters of camel-
most important potters of the Edo bare. Three fingers and a thumb lias spring from among the hills and
period and is credited with helping mark, presumably from Ninsei's hand, the black enamel clouds.
form the distinctive overglaze enamel are still clearly visible in the glaze. The form and its decoration can be
stoneware made in Kyoto. He was Most of Ninsei's production centered seen as a play on the vessel's function.
the first potter in Japan to "sign" his on vessels for the tea ceremony, Such jars were used to store the whole
wares, introducing the concept of the including tea caddies, tea bowls, and tea leaf until it was ready to be freshly
artist-potter into Japanese ceramics. water jars. Because of the refinement ground into powder for use in the tea
By stamping his works with his name, of his pieces, exemplifying the pre- ceremony. Ground tea would then be
consistently at the left middle part vailing mood of restrained elegance transferred to a small, preferably black,
of the base where a painting would (kirei sabi), they were popular among lacquer tea caddy. The imitation of
have been marked, he was making a the tea elite of the period. NCR the tea caddy form in a tea leaf jar
conscious statement about his artistic would have been instantly recognized
identity and declaring ceramics to be by tea enthusiasts. The early spring
the equal of painting. The hallmark decoration on this jar may indicate
of Ninsei's design was its reliance on that its contents were the first tea
traditional Japanese motifs (Yamatoe). leaves of the new year. NCR
The waves breaking against the cres-
cent moon depicted on this tea bowl
are a superlative illustration of this
style of painting.