first half of 17th century

,
Edo period

Stoneware with ash and iron glazes
H: 18.4 W: 18.6 D: 18.6 cm
Japan

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1893.3a-b

In the early seventeenth century, both Chinese blue-and-white porcelain and Vietnamese blue-and-white stoneware were popular as tea-ceremony utensils and tableware. In Japan the pure white clay called porcelain was first found near the southern village of Arita; much early Arita porcelain resembles Chinese blue-and-white. Elsewhere, including Seto and Mino, potters painted cobalt decoration on light-colored stoneware. For early Seto and Mino blue-and-white wares, Vietnamese rather than Chinese ceramics may be the most important model. Such wares are most closely associated with the Ofuke workshop operated by Seto official potters inside Nagoya Castle, the headquarters of the Owari Tokugawa domain.