Incense Burner (late 1300s): Art, History and Details

Incense Burner (late 1300s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This container's repeated, undulating, rounded sides evoke waves over which the articulated plovers sweep. The bronze cover (probably a later addition) mimics the design of a fishing weir. Overall, the container brings to mind the seashore. The earthy quality of the lacquered surface demonstrates the interaction between a man-made pattern (the plovers) and the somewhat unexpected surface of a natural material such as wood.

Object facts

• Title: Incense Burner
• Date: late 1300s
• Culture: Japan, Nanbokuchō period (1336–92)
• Type: Lacquer
• Technique: black lacquer on wood with decoration in maki-e; metal rims; bronze lid
• Dimensions: Overall: 7.7 x 10.8 cm (3 1/16 x 4 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1960.195.a

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “Year in Review| 1960.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 47, no. 10, 1960, pp. 223–254.
• Lee, Sherman E. Japanese Decorative Style. Tokyo: Makoto Nakao, 1962.
• Mayuyama, Junkichi 繭山順吉. Japanese Art in the West. [Tokyo]: Mayuyama & Co, 1966.

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.