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An image of Small tea bowl with design of landscape and poem by Ogata KENZAN
Alternate image of Small tea bowl with design of landscape and poem by Ogata KENZAN Alternate image of Small tea bowl with design of landscape and poem by Ogata KENZAN

Ogata KENZAN

(Japan 1663–1743)

Title
Small tea bowl with design of landscape and poem
Other titles:
Small black tea cup with landscape design
Place of origin
Japan
Year
18th century
Media category
Ceramic
Materials used
stoneware with iron underglaze
Dimensions

5.8 x 7.2cm

Signature & date
Signed on side after inscription, in Japanese, iron underglaze, '[Kenzan shô]' and kaô (kakihan) '[ji]'.
Credit
Purchased 2003
Accession number
434.2003
Location
Not on display
Further information

Born as the third son of a family of wealthy merchants, and younger brother of Ogata Kôrin, the famous painter/designer, Kenzan studied ceramics under Nonomiya Ninsei, arguably the most respected potter in Japan. Kenzan, however, did not follow or imitate Ninsei but created an original style often working together with his brother Kôrin in what came to be called the Rinpa style. While Ninsei exploited the three-dimensional surface of the ceramic piece in decorating his work, Kenzan treated the whole shape as a single pictorial space - incorporating the interior and exterior of a bowl.

Asian Art Department, AGNSW, 2003.

The inscription on this tea bowl is from a larger poem by the Song poet Dai Fugu. It reads:

The immense joy of a tranquil dwelling.
Drives away the regrets of [one who dons] a scholar's cap

Dai Fugu (1167－?), cognomen Shizhi and sobriquet Shiping, is a poet of the Southern Song dynasty. Born in Huangyan, present-day Zhejiang Province, Dai is a celebrated member of the Jianghu school of poets, and he is said to have spent over twenty years travelling and visiting famous scenic spots. His works is collected in the ‘Shiping shi ji’ and the ‘Shiping ci’.

The poem below (from which the couplet comes) collected in the ‘Shiping shi ji’, is one of Dai's ‘Shanzhong jimu er shou’. This is a ‘wuyan lushi ‘or Five-character Eight-line Regulated Poem.

Cluster of five [or] seven thatched huts
Sandy shore [with] eight [or] nine boulders

Terraced hill [with] beds of luxuriant wheat
Bulging rocks hasten the flow of the stream

Gathering of elders after sacrificial rites to the Earth god
Children playing [around the] pear and chestnut [trees]

The immense joy of a tranquil dwelling
Drives away the regrets of [one who dons] a scholar's cap

(trans. Dr Lim Chye Hong, April 2012)

Bibliography (2)

Kenzan no tôgei [Ceramics of Kenzan (1663-1743)], Tokyo, 1987, 97 (colour illus.). colour reproduction no.134

Art speaks Japanese: Japanese language education kit from the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales 2007, 2007, colour illus.. card no. 07

Exhibition history (1)

Kenzan no tôgei [Ceramics of Kenzan (1663-1743)], The Gotoh Museum, 17 Oct 1987–29 Nov 1987.