Pair of Hexagonal Jars (late 1600s): Art, History and Details

Pair of Hexagonal Jars (late 1600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This kakiemon-type jar with plum design is a product made for the European markets. Here, Japanese kakiemon potters transformed the typical plum, bamboo, and pine motifs into a theme appreciating the plum. The 9th-century Japanese scholar and politician Sugawara Michizane established the plum as a symbol of scholarship. An excellent poet, particularly of Chinese-style poetry, he was also well known for his love of plum blossoms. Later, the plum came to represent tenmangu, a shrine for Sugawara.

Object facts

• Title: Pair of Hexagonal Jars
• Date: late 1600s
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: porcelain with overglaze color enamel and gold decoration (Hizen ware; Kakiemon type)
• Dimensions: Overall: 26.8 x 18.6 cm (10 9/16 x 7 5/16 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1964.273

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, and Sŏn Sŭng-hye. The Lure of Painted Poetry: Japanese and Korean Art. Cleveland: 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.