Date Created: Japan, Momoyama period to early Edo period (1615-1868)
Location: Shiga, Japan
Physical Dimensions: w31 x h44.7 x d31 mm (work)
Label Copy: Shigaraki ware can be recognized immediately by the distinctive properties of the local clay, a gritty mixture of sand, feldspar, and trace metals that fire to a deep red-brown or golden-red. The surface is speckled with white, where particles of unfused feldspar exploded in the heat of firing. The glossy green-brown glaze that drapes across the shoulder of the jar is an accident of the firing process, resulting when tree ash floating through the kiln fused with the molten surface of the clay. Unglazed, earthy Shigaraki wares such as this storage jar were eagerly embraced by tea masters, who were drawn to their studied and deliberate rusticity and used them to store tea.