The body of the jar is an irregular ovoidal shape, formed by hand, presumably by the coil method, the walls pounded thin with paddle and anvil, the carved head of the anvil leaving clear impressions of repeated spirals on the interior of the vessel and the paddle leaving shallow striations on the exterior. The vessel was compressed back to front producing the ovoid shape that became somewhat distorted during firing. It is without foot and the base is rounded rather than flattened, preserving its organic, egg-like form. The constricted neck and circular mouth with thick, carefully articulated rim, appear to have been made on a wheel and luted to the hand-formed body of the jar. The hard stoneware body is somewhat coarse and not firmly compacted, of grey color, and with flashes and swatches of olive-green glaze brightening certain areas and coating the interior of the mouth as a result of contact with ash during firing.
This humble ceramic jar represents Japan’s early stoneware production which resulted from ceramic technology introduced from Korea and established originally in Suemura in the Osaka area of the Kansai region. The updraft kilns introduced from Korea were essential to produce the temperatures required for the production of the hard ceramics, and the use of the fast-turning potter’s wheel enabled craftsmen to form pots of regularity and balance if they chose to do so, or to finish their work with refined elements such as the mouth of the present jar. The high-firing of the ware also resulted in glazes being formed from ash falling or blown onto the vessels by the force of the draft during firing, producing a thin crust of glass or glaze after cooling. Related 6th-century examples of this utilitarian ware include a two handled ‘pilgrim jar’ with slightly compressed shape and wheel-formed mouth (fig. 1) and a ewer with spout placed to the side, exemplifying the specialization in shape that is characteristic of these ceramics (fig. 2).
The oblong form is somewhat reminiscent of the cocoon-shaped earthenwares of the Han dynasty in China and related stonewares of the Three-Kingdoms period in Korea, which, as suggested above, had the most direct impact on Sueki development in Japan. The cocoon-shape, represented here by another Sueki vessel of the 6th century (fig. 3), is also similar to the rice-bale shapes of Korean stonewares produced centuries later. And similar to these late Korean wares, the Sueki stoneware of the present exhibition, typical of its own type and times, has an untended, imprecise, natural appearance. Hidden from view and not intended to be seen, a by-product of fabrication techniques, is the stunning spiral effect on the interior walls of the vessel, beauty by accident, an effect frequently encountered in these wares (fig. 4).
The jar and its counterparts in the world of Sueki ceramics embody features that moved later Japanese tea enthusiasts to import the Korean stonewares—unpretentious, stark, yet warm—and to encourage the creation of an entire world of tea ceramics in Japan, one that would recapture and reproduce the astringent quality, unsophisticated, unpretentious, close-to-nature feeling of Japan’s ancient wares. The tea masters came close to achieving their desired effects, but the present ceramic is the real thing.
Fig. 1. Sueki ‘pilgrim flask,’ 6th century, from a tumulous in Gifu prefecture, after Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 2 (Ancient Japanese Ceramics), Tokyo, 1979, pl. 28, p. 40.
Fig. 2. Sueki ewer, 6th century, from a kiln site in Suemura, after Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 2 (Ancient Japanese Ceramics), Tokyo, 1979, fig. 129, p. 207.
Fig. 3. Sueki cocoon-shaped jar, 6th century, excavated in Ota, Gunma prefecture, after Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 2 (Ancient Japanese Ceramics), Tokyo, 1979, fig. 71, p. 175.
Fig. 4. Patterns formed by carved anvil heads on early Sueki, after Nihon no Bijutsu, no. 170, Sueki, Tokyo, 1980, fig. 51, p. 28.
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