Storage Jar (Tsubo) (1400s): Art, History and Details

Storage Jar (Tsubo) (1400s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This bulbous clay jar, with its expansive, dry orange-brown surface, white dots of feldspathic stone, and spidery crazing marks epitomizes one type of medieval ware from Shigaraki. This region east of Kyoto and north of the older cultural and religious center of Nara has long been known as a source of superior clay material. Shigaraki storage jars were crafted for strength and durability. The vessel's slightly lopsided shape shows precisely where its three lower clay sections connect with one another. The "stubble" on the upper shoulder sections is highlighted by dripping rivulets of dull-green ash glaze in one small area on the broken neck. The same natural glaze runs over the slope of the shoulder and also appears as a large splash of thin, glossy olive green where the shoulder joins the upper body.

Object facts

• Title: Storage Jar (Tsubo)
• Date: 1400s
• Culture: Japan, Muromachi period (1392–1573)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: stoneware with natural ash glaze (Shigaraki ware)
• Dimensions: Diameter: 47.5 cm (18 11/16 in.); Overall: 53 cm (20 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 2015.492

Collection credit

Gift from the Collection of George Gund III

Further reading listed by the museum

• Longhi, Leighton R. Leighton R. Longhi: Forty-Five Years in Asian Art. [New York, N.Y.]: Leighton R. Longhi, 2019.

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.