Spanning the Centuries
- Left:
- Shigaraki ware storage jar
- Artist unknown
- Stoneware with natural ash glaze
- Shigaraki, Japan, late 16th—early 17th century
- Museum purchase made possible by Margaret Watson Parker Art Collection Fund, UMMA 1986/1.161
- Right:
- Large jar
- Kôyama Kiyoko (b. 1936)
- Stoneware with natural ash glaze
- Shigaraki, Japan, ca. 2000
- Gift of the artist, UMMA 2010/1.213
Artist Kôyama Kiyoko's jar is less than 20 years old. Her work builds upon a far older tradition of pottery-making in Shigaraki, Shiga Prefecture, Japan, an area that became renowned for its tea ceramics by the early 16th century. Potters use local sandy clays and wood-fired cave kilns to produce distinctive wares. The surfaces of these two vessels glisten with natural ash glazes, an ancient technique recently revived by Kiyoko. The subtle irregularities of these two tea storage jars—separated by more than four hundred years—reveal both potters' mastery of their art.