Inkstone in the Form of a Koto (1600s): Art, History and Details

Inkstone in the Form of a Koto (1600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This hollow ink stone shaped like a musical instrument called a koto reflects the witty idea that music can inspire writing. The koto’s string and bridge were incised into the clay and then painted with underglaze iron pigment.

Object facts

• Title: Inkstone in the Form of a Koto
• Date: 1600s
• Culture: Japan, Momoyama period (1573-1615) to Edo period (1615-1858)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Stoneware with underglaze iron decoration (Shino ware, Mino type)
• Dimensions: Overall: 4.4 x 19.2 x 7 cm (1 3/4 x 7 9/16 x 2 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1971.168

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harry H. Stone

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1971.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 59, no. 1 (February 1972): 3–46.
• Sŏn, Sŭng-hye. The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2011.

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.