This unusual scholar’s article is of square shape, formed with thick walls to produce a very sturdy implement that is comprised of a lower section and a lid, all decorated in underglaze-cobalt blue. The lower section is divided into five shallow zones—a rectangular water receptacle along side an inkstone of unglazed porcelain for grinding ink, two smaller rectangular wells above for mixing ink, and a long gutter on the right perhaps for a brush—all save the grinding area covered with a thick white glaze of greenish tint and all raised on a high base pierced with a quatrefoil- shape on one side that could serve as a hand-hold. The base is rimmed by a thick irregular foot roughly molded with a bracket apron, the apron lined with a blue border while butterflies flank the quatrefoil. Sprays of peony, camellia and a lily-like flower decorate the remaining three sides of the base. The top of the slightly convex square cover provides an ideal surface for a painting, here a riverscape scene painted in a deep purplish-blue color. A boatman with a pole stands near the bow eyeing the birds flying overhead, his boat half hidden behind a large outcropping which supports ragged pines high above and clumps of scattered foliage. Two rocky land masses sprouting grasses emerge from the water, while a mountainous region in the distance closes the scene. Two sides of the lid are decorated with bamboo, the other sides with prunus and pine. The painting is executed in an outline and wash technique, the lineament appearing swift, fluid, and unrestrained while expertly descriptive, and the washes of color ranging from pale to darker blue. The inside of the cover and the base of the inkstone are glazed while the porcelain body visible at the unglazed foot, grindstone and cover rim appears somewhat coarse and marked with iron spit-outs. Glaze has chipped away from corners and angles, typical of this type of ware.
Underglaze-blue decorated porcelain inkstones were produced in China for domestic use from at least the Ming dynasty onward, a circular shape the most popular.1 The kosometsuke-style inkstones preserved in Japan, their original destination, include a great range of shapes, square like the present (fig. 1), rectangular (figs. 2-4), feng-shaped, that is, shaped in the general outline form of the character feng, “wind,” (fig. 5), oval (fig. 6), as well as circular (fig. 7).
The inkstone illustrated in figure 2 is similarly complex in the construction of its interior as well as in the fully developed landscape scene on its lid. Such scenes appear predominantly on larger kosometsuke serving dishes which offered grounds most conducive to reproducing with brush and pigment the sense of the sprawling and inviting outdoors (figs. 8-9). The fishermen we encounter in many of these scenes were obviously a beloved subject, allowing whomever possessed or used implements so-decorated to identify with these free, unencumbered spirits. At least one was led by his special good fortune, according to the 4th century poet Tao Yuanming, through a watery cave and into the miraculous Peach Blossom Spring, a utopian land, since that one encounter lost to us all. Yet, such images can awaken in the viewer an optimism, that reaching a better world is a possibility.
Kosometsuke, “old blue-decorated style,” porcelain was produced by the Chinese during the late Ming dynasty in the early 17th century for Japan where it was embraced as a wonderfully exotic and appropriately eccentric tea ceremony accoutrement, ranging from fresh water receptacles for use in the preparation of tea and waste-water vessels for rinsing cups, to flower vases for use in the tokonoma alcoves, to incense containers and a range of drinking cups, serving and eating dishes, bottles, and ewers for the dining and drinking after consumption of the tea.
The inkstone is one of the least encountered of underglaze-blue decorated porcelain implements related to the tea culture in Japan but is hardly peripheral to the concerns of the masters of that culture and their followers. The inkstone partnered with brush and ink in facilitating the writing of inscriptions on the wooden boxes carefully crafted to hold the various wares, of names in guest books, and for composing journalistic records of tea ceremony gatherings and producing small sketches of the ceremonies themselves which ranged from drawings of the tearooms, to sketches of the implements used and written descriptions of the events. If a teacup is the heart of the tea ceremony, the inkstone is its mind.
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1. Over a hundred ceramic inkstones, the majority of Ming or Qing date and of these most of them underglaze-blue decorated porcelain of circular shape and all without covers, are illustrated in Zhifeng Xie, Ciyan shangxi, “The Appreciation of Porcelain Inkstones,” Nanning, 1994. Included among these are a number that bear inscriptions dated to the Wanli or Tianqi periods. The style of all of these is relatively rough. By comparison the kosometsuke for Japan, which we normally think of as rough, appears accomplished, serious, and even refined. An underglaze-blue decorated porcelain inkstone in the shape of a peach—complete with a lid and inscription to suggest it was made for a student on the verge of examinations and graduation—is interestingly in the Percival David collection, now in the British Museum in London. It is a rather rustic late Ming product that would have also fit nicely in the world of Japanese tea. See Margaret Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Porcelains Decorated in Underglaze Blue and Copper Red in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1963, no. A658, p. 35.
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Fig. 1: Kosometsuke square inkstone, late Ming dynasty, early 17th century A.D., after Kawahara Masahiko, Kosometsuke, vol. I, color plates, Kyoto, 1977, pl. 106.
Fig. 2: Kosometsuke rectangular inkstone, late Ming dynasty, early 17th century A.D., after Kawahara Masahiko, Kosometsuke, vol. I, color plates, Kyoto, 1977, pl. 107.
Fig. 3: Kosometsuke rectangular inkstone, late Ming dynasty, early 17th century A.D., after Kawahara Masahiko, Kosometsuke, vol. II, monochrome plates, Kyoto, 1977, pl. 431.
Fig 4: Kosometsuke rectangular inkstone, late Ming dynasty, early 17th century A.D., after Kawahara Masahiko, Kosometsuke, vol. II, monochrome plates, Kyoto, 1977, pl. 432.
Fig. 5: Kosometsuke feng-shaped inkstone, late Ming dynasty, early 17th century A.D., after Kawahara Masahiko, Kosometsuke, vol. I, color plates, Kyoto, 1977, pl. 105.
Fig. 6: Kosometsuke oval inkstone, late Ming dynasty, early 17th century A.D., after Kawahara Masahiko, Kosometsuke, vol. II, monochrome plates, Kyoto, 1977, pl. 430.
Fig. 7: Kosometsuke circular inkstone, late Ming dynasty, early 17th century A.D., after Kawahara Masahiko, Kosometsuke, vol. II, monochrome plates, Kyoto, 1977, pl. 428.
Fig. 8: Kosometsuke platter, late Ming dynasty, early 17th century A.D., after Kaikodo Journal XII, “Scholarly Premises,” Autumn 1999, no. 66.
Fig. 9: Kosometsuke platter, late Ming dynasty, early 17th century A.D., after Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1986, fig. 809.