Kettle with Crane Design (lid) (1392–1573): Art, History and Details

Kettle with Crane Design (lid) (1392–1573) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Water supplied from a jar such as the fine Shino-ware vessel (CMA 1972.9.a-b) was transferred to an iron kettle for boiling as part of the tea ceremony. Former CMA director Sherman Lee described the jagged, broken skirt of this kettle as "attractively damaged," complementing the unobtrusive wispy designs on its rough metal surface. The character of this kettle—worn, coarse, the "perfection" of symmetry destroyed—was cherished by tea masters for its powerful humility.

Object facts

• Title: Kettle with Crane Design (lid)
• Date: 1392–1573
• Culture: Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: iron
• Dimensions: Diameter: 30.4 cm (11 15/16 in.); Diameter of mouth: 18.6 cm (7 5/16 in.); Overall: 18.2 cm (7 3/16 in.); with handle: 31.5 cm (12 3/8 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1980.11.b

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E., Michael R. Cunningham, and Ursula Korneitchouk. One Thousand Years of Japanese Art (650-1650): From the Cleveland Museum of Art: Catalogue. New York: Japan Society, 1981.
• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1980.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 6 (June 1981): 163–219.
• Sŏn, Sŭng-hye. The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art. Cleveland, OH: 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.