Cleveland Museum of Art

Storage Jar

Date

late 1300s–1400s

Medium

Stoneware with natural ash glaze (Shigaraki ware)

Culture

Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573)

Department

Japanese Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The red color of this jar comes from iron in the clay. Natural ash glaze settled on the vessel during firing. The rim would have been complete with a slightly flared lip. Around the collar is an incised pattern resembling cypress fences, a common scene in the Japanese landscape. Intended for grain storage, rustic vessels like this one were also prized by tea enthusiasts, who appreciated the uncalculated beauty of the glaze and the asymmetry of these humble vessels. This jar was probably made using a coiling method, where coils of clay are stacked atop each other and smoothed to form its structure.

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