Fire-flame Cooking Vessel (Ka'en Doki) (c. 2500 BCE): Art, History and Details

Fire-flame Cooking Vessel (Ka'en Doki) (c. 2500 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Archaeologists call this kind of vessel “fire flame,” ka’en in Japanese, because its top resembles flames. No one knows why the design was made or what it actually represents. This example is remarkable for the amount that is original. It was recently determined that a bottom from a different vessel was used during its reconstruction in the 1900s, creating a false impression of its intended scale; it would have initially been about four inches shorter. Since their lower portions were set into holes in the ground during use, bases of pots like this one often deteriorate and may be missing when they are excavated.

Object facts

• Title: Fire-flame Cooking Vessel (Ka'en Doki)
• Date: c. 2500 BCE
• Culture: Japan, Jōmon period (c. 10,500–300 BCE)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Earthenware with carved and applied decoration
• Dimensions: height: 61 cm (24 in.); Diameter: 55.8 cm (21 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1984.68

A detail from the museum

Scientifically tested residues from Jōmon vessels reveal that their makers consumed detoxified acorns.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1984." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 72, no. 2 (1985): 163–207.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991.
• Glaubinger, Jane, "FILL THIS", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 35 no. 08, October 1995

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.