Unknown
Japanese
Storage Jars, 1372-1593, Muromachi Period
Tamba stoneware with natural ash glaze
16 1/2 x 14 1/2 in. (diam.)
SBMA, Gift of Wright S. Ludington
1964.2.1-.2
RESEARCH PAPER
Tamba Ware Storage Jars
Background
Wright Ludington’s bequest of two Tamba Jars is evidence of his wide-ranging connoisseurship, for these examples of Japanese folk pottery, though greatly esteemed in Japan, are not as well known in the West as other Japanese ceramics more strongly influenced by Chinese and or Korean tastes and technology. Japanese folk pottery most truly reflects Japanese sensibilities. Around 400 years ago the first tea masters began their creation of an aesthetic, which was to raise simple, utilitarian utensils used in the serving of tea, to the status of highly prized possessions. These objects expressed the directness, spontaneity and simplicity as exemplified in Zen Buddhism. Part of this idea included the notion that the appreciation of a beautiful object was complete only when the object was put to use. I wasn’t until the late 1920’s that an awareness and appreciation for Japanese folk arts in general led collectors to raise the status of the ubiquitous storage jars used on peasant farms for generations, to a form of folk art. A small group of enthusiasts, Yanagi Soetsu, scholar, Hamada Shoji and Kawai Kanjiro, who were both artist potters who had worked with English potter, Bernard Leach, were responsible. They founded the Japan Folk Crafts Museum in 1936 and published a magazine called Mingei, which became the collective term for folk art. The resurgence of interest in Japanese folk pottery was eventually to influence potters in the US especially on the West Coast.
Description
Tamba is the name of an old province in central Japan occupying a mountainous region. The pottery represents the collective output of the village kilns of Oji, Inhata, Muromori, Kamaya, Onobara and Tachikui. The history of pottery in this region is obscure until the beginning of the Kamakura period, around 1200, when the earliest examples with distinct regional characteristics appeared. The output of these wares, with some changes, continued until well into the Edo period. The appearance of this pottery coincides the feudal period, when courtly and indirectly Chinese influences were overwhelmed by the unrest, belligerence and unrest of each province. Isolated from any foreign influence, Japanese ceramics took on its characteristic forms. Most likely it was the urgent need for storage and cooking vessels in isolated agricultural communities, which provided the impetus for production. Gradually output increased, so that by the Momoyama period, as many as 100,000 pieces were being made, at the Tamba village potteries. Although saki containers and graters were also made early on, the multipurpose containers for storing grain, seed, and water and for pickling, was the most common form. Usually less than 24” in height, the base is flat, small in diameter. The mouth, usually about 6” of 7” wide is just big enough to admit the hand. The typical jar swells with a voluminous belly a bit off centers, heightening their hand formed look. The clay used was coarse, of a dark-red brown or gray brown color. Once dug from the ground locally, it underwent little or no processing and granules and mineral fragments were common in the matrix. After being wet down, the clay was stored in piles then kneaded for the wheel. Moved by foot, the wheels were primitive slow-moving affairs with little momentum. The bottom of the jar was formed by beating out a slab or disc of clay on the wooden wheel head, or a bat, which was first dusted with wood ash to keep it from sticking. Made by a variation of the coil method in three stages, a fat coil was first added to the base, then squeezed, paddles or thrown on the wheel to form the bottom third. Two more coils were then added, thrown and shaped in turn. On can see the joining of the coils on many pieces, especially with the addition of the second one, which was most apt to be asymmetrical. In contrast, the lip is well thrown and finished in form. Although the crude character of these vessels may suggest a lack of craftsmanship, on their own terms, the jars are well made, sturdy, of uniform thickness, with the hand of the potter unashamedly apparent. Although a jar could be made rather quickly, these simple procedures insured that no two jars would be exactly alike, not only as to precise form, but also due to the surface coloring and textures acquired in the firing. The early kiln types called anagama (hole kiln) was constructed by digging a cave or tunnel into the brow of a hillside. The entrance was made just large enough for one man to pass through the pots, hand to hand, and stacked from back to front in tiers and layers to the height of the kiln. Cypress and pine, formerly abundant in the area, were used for fuel. After a slow process of continuous firing, the kiln was able to reach temperatures of 1200c. The rich surface textures and colors came not only from the flashing of the flame on some pieces more than others, but most notably from the coating of glaze covering the shoulders of the pots running down toward the base in streaks. Bidaro, the name for this natural glaze coating, is caused by the ash deposits, which fuse into glass. The wood ash sweeps up through the firing chamber drawn by the draft created by the flue. Settling on the pots, it fuses with silica and alumna on the surface of the clay body to create the glaze. Long firings contributed to the buildup of thicker glaze deposits, causing the molten glass to flow in runs and drips down the sides. The clay that was thinly glazed appears tan or reddish brown, whereas the thick coatings tend to be green, gray or even bluish. The contrast between the warm and cool becomes an attractive hallmark of the ware. Commonly firing granules, crumbs from the ceiling of the kiln, which fall on the viscous glaze and stick, are also common and can be clearly seen on one of the pots in SBMA’s collection. Each jar tells its own unique history in the kiln. To quote an authority on Tamba, “The pots relate to each other more like a collection of pebbles on a beach rather than peas in a pod”. These pots, relics of simple, unsophisticated peasant artistry, were produced with no radical changes in form over 250 years and represent the work of ten generations of potters. Because Japanese venerate old things, pots of this type survived on farms for years, often in continuous use before they became the valued finds of collectors. They can speak to us today as reminders of the values of traditional communities and their ways of living and working.
Bibliography
Graham, Hazel H., Japanese and Oriental Ceramics , (Charles Tuttle) 1971
Jenyns, Soame, Japanese Pottery, (Praeger Publications) 1971
Munsterberg, Hugo, The Folk Arts of Japan, (Charles Tuttle) 1958
Rhodes, Daniel, Tamba Pottery the Timeless Art of a Japanese Village, (Kodansha International)
Wilson, Richard L., “Ezara: Pictorial Plates from Seto”, Orientations, vol.25, no.9, Sept. 1994
Graham, Patricia J., “Japanese Popular Ceramics in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art," Orientations, vol. 25, no. 9, Sept. 1994
Prepared for SBMA Docent Council Asian team 1995, revised 2003 by Gay Collins
SBMA CURATORIAL LABELS
These sturdy, functional storage vessels come from the mountain village west of Kyoto now known as Tachikui in Tamba province, distinguished as one of Japan’s “six old kilns.”
- SBMA Gallery Label, 2012